Is this a Challenge that Needs to be Met? I think so.

Apparently October is Official Taco Month. Who knew? But I'm not going to complain. I'm sure there are different versions of this, but there are also rules for Tacoctober... Let's begin:

Official Tacotober Rules

These are the rules as dictated to me by the father of Tacotober, Brian K .

• 1.Any mixture of two or more traditional items in a folded tortilla constitutes a full taco.
• 2.Traditional items are: beans, meat, cheese, salsa, rice, avocado, guacamole, lettuce, cilantro etc. You know, taco stuff.
• 3.Choco Tacos count as a full taco
• 4.Mini tacos and taquitos only count as 1/2 a taco.
• 5.Fusion tacos (Tacos with ingredients like Daal, Korean BBQ, and haggis etc.) only count as 1/2 a taco.
• 6.You must eat 31 tacos during the month of October to be considered an official Tacotober member.
• 7.After the great taco shortage of 2007, it is no longer necessary to consume a taco at every meal. But, it is smiled upon by the great taco God, Cilantro the Conqueror.
• 8.Spread the word of Tacotober at work, with friends, at your house of worship and via your social network.
• 9.It is suggested that you create a “contest” with your friends and co-workers to determine who is most deserving of Cilantro the Conqueror's love by eating the most tacos during the month.

Who's in?

http://web.me.com/strngwys/Tacotober/Taco_Flavored_Kisses.html
(via Angelee)

Brought to you by Bacon Salt

Yup.. this is what we do for fun on a Saturday night. You know you're jealous. I'm still waiting to try this on top of Fries... or Popcorn. mmmmm...

http://www.baconsalt.com

I'm Your Huckleberry

Okay.. cheesiest title ever. Sorry. But it seems... fitting. Plus - this place can be my Huckleberry anytime it wants. I'm okay with that. What is this place? Huckleberry in Santa Monica. (brought to us by the people behind Rustic Canyon, which is another place I've been meaning to try...) Way back when on some drunken night, Andrea, Kirk and I had noticed that "hmm.. this place is new" and pondered what exactly it was, and thought "maybe it's a furniture store".. or something like that. But then I found my UrbanDaddy emails and saw a new breakfast food place in town! They don't just do breakfast, but they're a day cafe, and for some reason, I feel as if they were advertising it that way. So I excitedly email them and say that we need to try this place. 2 months later, we actually did - but it was worth the wait. I wouldn't say that the food was OMGSOAMAZING, but it definitely was good and not something that you just say "oh.. I could make it better", because while food is really hard to get amazing, it's really easy to screw up.

The second we stepped in we ogled over their decadent display of sweets and pretty much said "yes" to one of each, in our heads. We ended up having the bread pudding and the coffee cake, both of which were great. (*Side note, my frame of reference for bread pudding isn't great because I'm actually not the biggest fan, but Andrea seemed really happy about it and is probably more of a bread pudding expert.. so we'll stick with "both of which were great".)

The greatest part about eating with friends [who like to share] is that you get to try more than just your dish. This is why you have to be choosy about who you go to eat with as well. Friends who don't like to share food generally don't get invited back - unless it's by other people who don't like sharing food either. That's not me.

So, for Sunday (not particularly Easter) Brunch, I had a Turkey Meatball sandwich (with gruyere cheese!), the Fried Egg Sandwich (mm.. niman ranch bacon) and the Green Eggs & Ham sandwich (the green was pesto). All three dishes were quite tasty and I wouldn't hesitate to go back, for breakfast, or lunch, or to stop in to get one of their take home shepherd's pies or $4 cinnamon sugar croissants or MONSTER donuts. I've heard only stories about how crowded it can get, but we went on the late-ish side, so it was actually really nice. Too bad it wasn't warm enough to eat outside, but we've got a whole summer [of next day brunch post late night drinking nights] ahead of us.

Huckleberry www.huckleberrycafe.com
1014 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica CA, 310)451.2311
Wed-Fri 8am-7pm, Sat/Sun 8am-5pm, Open on Tuesdays starting in May!

News at Blu Jam Cafe

I have some good news, and some bad news, and some more good news!

The good news is, Jean and I got together this morning and had an adventure!

The bad news is, at some point during that adventure, Jean admitted that she was terribly pissed off that I didn't blog at all the entire time she was in Ireland! She knows I was having adventures without her, and I didn't share any of them, which is, frankly, incredibly disappointing.

The rest of the good news is, she's not actually pissed at me! She's mad at Kirk. (Hi, Kirk!) Because, naturally, this is ALL HIS FAULT. Naturally. Because he makes me "boring." Right? Right. That is how that works. (Mission: Be not boring.)

To make up for it (because of course I don't want Jean to be mad at Kirk) I picked up our brunch at Blu Jam Cafe on Melrose. And I even took pictures so I could blog about it. I fucken love brunch, by the way. It might be my favorite thing about weekends, even more than drinking a lot (mostly because I like to do that on weekdays) and sleeping in (mostly because I sometimes wake up really early for no Goddamn reason, like today.)


Jean had the Kamil's Breakfast (Kamil being the chef de cuisine) on the left. It was eggs scrambled with bacon, cheddar cheese, garlic, chives, and elbow macaroni. Whoever thought to throw pasta into their egg scramble is a genius. Or was incredibly hungover that morning. And a genius. I had the Eggs Bohemia, which was 2 eggs fried over bacon and black forest ham and topped with chives, served with their home potatoes and [wheat] toast. Sometimes I forget how good eggs and bacon are. And, because of that, I am retarded stupid. Also, the potatoes? Really good. I hate it when you go to a breakfast place and the potatoes are an afterthought.

At some point or another during the meal, I found myself asking, "Nice brunch with my workBFF? Could this get any better?"


GUESS SO. Crepes with strawberries, bananas and Nutella. Don't you get dessert when you have brunch? No? Well, do you get a third entree for two people? Again, no? Never? In that case, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU. Let's make it a point to never have brunch together.

Well, three entrees for two people is a lot of food. Per Jean: "You win, breakfast." (And that was before the complimentary teensy chocolate chip cookies.)


Blu Jam Cafe
www.blujamcafe.com
Open daily from 8:00am - 4:00pm and
Friday nights from 7:00pm - 10:30pm for various "International Bistro Nights"
7371 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 951-9191

Addendum...

Yay for adventures! And here is Andrea being a Bohemian, and cute coffee designs in our lattes. Let me just clarify... I wasn't really REALLY mad, but I can be if that involves more people picking up checks. (Thanks Dre!)

*Also... boring = not hanging out with me - so let's rectify that ... constantly. It's not just a one time thing, but an eternal thing you are striving for. And this isn't just to Andrea, but everyone. Got it?

*And lastly, breakfast made a really good dinner. Nuking it a little bit took some of the liquidy grease out of it (or maybe it was just draining on the bottom of the leftover container).. but it tasted really good a little drier. Oh, and leftover crepe was AWE.SOME. God I love Nutella.

Gjelina

So, this is a post that really should have happened a month a half ago. I'm trying to be better about this, I swear. Anyhoo, I was meaning to do this this weekend, and didn't, and was talking to a friend about this place - so I figure, that's my motivation. It's kismet. (Kind of like me ending up at the WeHo Target and getting a WiiFit today... Squeeee!)

In late December, my BFF came down for New Year's. We planned half a week's worth of good times - most of them revolving around eating or drinking. Based on the recommendation of my ex/Dre's current co-worker, for our "nice meal" of that week during BFF's visit: Andrea, BFF, BFF's future husband, and I ended up at Gjelina in Venice.

I'm just gonna say Yum. And it wasn't too overly priced for a "nice" meal. We all came out spending less than $100 and were really f*cking full by the end of it. It's been awhile, so I can't remember quite everything we had (which really just means I need to go back soon.) There was oysters, mussels, fried egg (over asparagus?... was that it?), truffle pizza, flank steak, two bottles of wine with *gold foil* (you know it's special then!), and probably a few more dishes I was too busy stuffing my face with to take pictures. Then there comes dessert. We really didn't need it, but that's never stopped us. I forget what exactly it was.. like butterscotch creme brulee? See that tasty little looking thing in the coffee cup in the third picture down there? To. Die. For. I'm pretty sure we had to stop ourselves from looking totally crass and licking the cup, but we probably all wanted to. Mix it with the flourless chocolate cake, and I was pretty happy girl.

It was super cute, and I highly recommend it (for anyone who's asking.) It's definitely got that Venice/Abbot Kinney vibe, and we sat outside in the back patio (yay Southern California). We also sat next to this raging fire place that roasted my arm until I made BFF Future Husband switch. hehe :) There's also really cute couchey/comfy dining areas that would be really fun for a nice grown up birthday dinner, or just hanging out and chilling. It's open air in the back with snazzy architecture and decor throughout. Which makes it cool, modern, hip, comfy, cozy and intimate all at the same time. I started reading some reviews, and as always, they can be kind of mixed. But I was never one for listening to reviews by strangers anyways so - If you can't tell by now, we all had a really great time. Thumbs up, Gjelina.