All Forces

After a rough start last week, my fortunes turned sweet when I received in the mail a Starbucks Barista Espresso Machine from my friends Steve and Deana Watson. They where about to sell it on eBay but instead sent it to me as gift. So I wanted to publicly say THANK YOU. YOU HAVE BLESSED ME BEYOND WORDS. I previously owned a Briel. An entry level machine that makes decent espresso but, it becomes increasingly frustrating when making multiple cups. In fact it was such a pain that I usually ended up serving everybody but me because I just couldn’t go through one more serving. However, this new Barista machine rocks. You can immediately tell the difference in the quality of the materials used. The Portafilter is rock solid with a rubber handle. The shell is stainless steal. It is a very simple to use and makes Starbucks quality lattes with perfect crema and froth. And the best part is that it can make multiple cups without throwing a hissy fit like my old one. So I am happy about my new machine, I’ve made quite a lot of cups already and it is a delight to use. THANK YOU STEVE AND DEANA!

So how easy is it to be your own Starbucks Barista? Here’s the steps a latte requires.

Technorati Tags: barista, starbucks

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boba fett art by themissy.com

I am seriously getting addicted to Boba a.k.a. Pearl Milk Tea, Bubble Tea, Tapioca Tea and also Black Pearl Tea. Boba is made of sweetened iced tea, milk and some big gummy tapioca balls. The balls, sometimes called pearls or bubbles are so big this drink requires an extra thick straw. Yummy! I got introduced to Boba by Ed some 8 years ago during our MGM days and ever since then I’ve been hooked on it. Although, now I’m seriously increasing my Boba intake thanks to the fact that I live near an asian part of LA. Back in the days I used to look forward to that magical green sign of Starbucks to get my caffeine fix but nowadays I’m hunting down the Boba places around town like a sniffing dog looking for drugs at the airport. We’re talking serious addiction here.

So I just realized today, hey I can look up online, why didn’t I think of that before? That’s how I ran into the funny art piece above featuring Boba Fett. Here’s some links I’ve found, you are welcome to contribute.

bobafind.com - a userbased search database. i just contributed my new fav spot.
Tapioca Express - a boba tea chain with store locator
LolliCup - another boba tea chain with store locator
quickly - a chain of boba tea shops around the world ( sucky website )
WikiPedia/Bubble Tea - The WikiPedia page on Boba
Google Maps - type in “boba, zipcode” and google will show any businesses with boba on their name in that zip code area

Technorati Tags: boba-tea, Grub, tapioca, tea

The French Crepe Company is one of those special L.A. places. It’s become a family tradition for us, every time we have visitors staying with us we have to have brunch at the Crepe Company in the original LA Farmer’s Market. The LA Farmer’s Market has tons of fresh produce from local farmers plus a wide range of little restaurants that has an international food court type of feeling. And now there even is a new open mall area called The Grove right next to it that has an Apple Store. You can’t beat that.

The French Crepe Co. menu is split into two categories. Savory(salty) and Sweet crepes. But you can pretty much pick and choose anything that goes inside from eggs or strawberries to chocolate. Yum. We usually get one savoty and one sweet and just split to get the best of both worlds.

a savory crepe

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Peruvian restaurants are probably not as common in american culture, but they are within the south american cultures and for good reason. Peru is in the west coast of South America and it’s known for it’s amazing seafood platters and soups. A few years ago my dad came to visit me in LA and he caught us at the worst time for a family, we all had the flu. My wife and I were barely standing up and yet still had to take of the kids while they themselves were sick too. After seeing this my dad got us all in the car and took us to a peruvian restaurant to get us some Parihuela, a rich seafood chowder with spices and tomatoes. A guaranteed flu fighting soup. Since then, I’ve come to look forward to peruvian food every time he visit. This week on my last night in New York, my sister and I went to a Mancora, a great peruvian restaurant in Smith St. in Brooklyn just south of Brookly Heights. It turns out, Smith Street has a restaurant strip that goes on for almost 10 blocks. Killer food at Brooklyn prices ( as opposed to Manhattan ), of course she had to tell me this the night before I left so I had something to look forward next time I visit NY.

I left my camera at home, so I had to take the pictures with my phone camera

the restaurant entrance

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Before I made my trip to NY I posted a request for “must eat” grub joints here. Last night I went to New Green Bo ( recommended by Vishal Goklani, thank you, thank you, thank you! ). It is in Chinatown but not on any of the main streets there, not that I would know for sure.

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My sister Aracely lives in an apartment right above these new type of open shopping areas. The first thing we did when we got there from NY was to go get some grub. So we went downstairs to a Thai place called Thaiphoon. I ordered Padtai since that’s the ultimate Thai test for me. If they don’t get that dish right, most likely they won’t get any right. So how did Thaiphoon come out in the test? not very good. Although some of the other dishes were quite yummy. Not a “must eat” there place, but it was nice that it’s just a few steps downstairs.

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Today I had dinner at La Mancha, a small restaurant here in Brooklyn Heights just a few blocks from my sister’s apartment. We had this amazing Seafood Paella with some Sangria that was just to die for. And we ended up meeting the owners in front of the restaurant where we chatted for a while. They’re a couple who bought this restaurant about a year ago and were telling us some of the stories of their first year.We connected with them in a very strange way. I felt at home. Oh oh. Did I just say that? Let’s see, I have no job holding me back in L.A. hum…

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Last night I had the most phenomenal dinner with my sister at Pampa, an argentinean grill in upper west side Manhattan. I was so glad I was no longer a vegetarian. This is one of those places I MUST visit every time I come to NY.

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I’m leaving for New York tonight to spend two weeks with my sister. We’ll also be be going down to DC to visit my younger sister during the weekend. I love New York. My wife and I always felt we would end up either overseas or in NY. I love the pace of the city, the buildings, the people and of course, the food. Which brings me to the following request. I am looking for the “must eat” places to grub in NY. If you are a grub master, I would love to hear from you. You will know if you are a grub master if people always ask you where to eat cause you just know the hidden treasures of the city.