SLOOPY'S BEACH CAFE

3416 Highland Ave.
Manhattan Beach

I've been trying to make it to Sloopy's ever since my friend Danny told me that Luke Walton (click to watch, under NBA Life: Luke Walton) of the Lakers named this place his best place for shakes. With a name that I had a hard time remembering, months passed by with no visit in sight. Finally, on a bright sunny weekend afternoon a group of us headed West on Rosecrans and made our way to Sloopy's Beach Cafe.

Sloopy's is located on busyass Highland Ave. where you have to deal with the usual shitty beach parking. With no parking in site, we had to park in the structure and walk down to Sloopy's. Just because of the location I expected it to have waiters, but to my surprise you just place your order and pay then they would call out your name when it's ready. It feels like your eating in someones patio or backyard. There was no roof, just an open ceiling with sun beams slapping you on the back of the neck.

I got up to the counter and ordered a peanut butter shake (of course I had to order a shake) and a mushroom & cheddar burger. The shake came in a smaller cup than what I had expected for $4 but when i tasted it, oooh boooy was it worth it. Peanut buttery goodness all up in my mouth. It had the perfect consistency where it took minimal effort to suck it through the straw. The burger was really good too. Their burger patties are made with Angus beef, so I guess this isn't you typical burger, it's definitely on another level. Add to it some crunchy fries and I had myself a great meal. The wraps and sandwiches that my friends had looked ordinary, so stick with the burgers.

I've been counting down the days to go back to Sloopy's for another shake. Remember how I was bitching about how small the shake came, well I couldn't even finish it! haha ~ Bootsi

AIMEE'S BISTRO

800 PCH
Redondo Beach
www.aimeesbistro.com

My aunt has never eaten at a French restaurant before so I decided to take her to Aimee's Bistro in Redondo. This is one of my favorite places to eat. It is a place that I can always count on for amazing food and good service. I've been here four or five times and each time was great. I took my picky ass dad here before too and he loved it. I took my brother and his wife here too and they fell in love with the place. This place ranks high on my "Da Shit" list.

We ordered Moules A La Thailandaise, black mussels in a spicy lemongrass, coconut milk and cilantro broth. This was hands down one of the best dishes that I have ever had. There were over a dozen mussels that were drenched in this amazing creamy broth. I could of easily made this an entree dish if I just would of brought some rice in a Ziploc bag with me from my rice cooker at home. I'm really gonna be considering it the next time, that's how good the mussels and broth were.

We shared (of course we managed to some how do it Chinese family style) an order of Risotto De St. Jacques Et Scampi, scallops and jumbo shrimp risotto with creamy saffron sauce. The risotto came with three large shrimp and three large scallops. The rice was perfectly cooked and the creamy saffron sauce was yes indeed cream and flavorful. I have ordered this dish couple of times before and every time, after the first bite, I always close my eyes and just smile.

We also shared the Boullabaisse, a famous French mix of shrimp, mussels, clams, scallops and salmon in a tomato-based saffron & herb-scented broth. This was the first time I ever tried boullabaisse. I never felt it was right to pay 20 plus dollars for soup but I was wrong, this dish was totally worth it. The tomato broth was excellent. I didn't know if I wanted to use a spoon for the broth or use the bread to sop up the broth, so my ass did both. It came with a mound full of seafood (shrimps, mussels, clams, scallops and salmon & halibut chunks.). It was a seafood party in that bitchin bowl.

For dessert we chose the creme brulee. It's a delicate vanilla flavored custard with a burnt sugar crust on top. It is a wonderful contrast of textures.

Plain and simple, this meal was amazing. Unfortunately we ate too damn much. I was slouching in the booth halfway through the meal with my spare tire firmly chilling over and suffocating my belt. My brain was telling me to stop but my taste buds and gut told me to go on, so I did. I can't wait to do this shit all over again! - BOOTSI

EL HAURACHE AZTECA #1

5225 York Blvd.
Highland Park

One of my friend sent me an email about a place that she saw in the dining section of the LA Weekly. It was called SOLE FOOD, written by Johnathan Gold, and he talked about this tiny restaurant in Highland Park that serves foot sized fried masa topped with all the fixings. So after a week or so we made a trip to Highland Park for some hauraches!


I ordered a haurache with carna asada and the works (onions, cilantro, crema,beans and grated cheese). The masa was freshly fried and crisp when we picked it up. It was so big that I had to cut it in half and eat it like a fat slice of pizza. The carna asada that I ordered on it was a tad dry, but balanced out with the crema and the fresh veggies. It was very satisfying.

My fatass also ordered the Wednesday special, chicken mole verde. I'm not a big mole fan, but this was really good. My plate came with a thigh and a drumstick smothered in green mole and really good whole beans and rice that was just as good. The chicken fell right off the bone and the mole was amazing. I wanted to lick up the plate when I was done, but remembered that I was not alone. ~ BOOTSI

MILK part II

After having a great meal at Loteria Grill we decided to get dessert at MILK. A quick seven minute trip down Beverly Blvd, we were hungry for some sweet action. After debating on what to get, Lieto picked the coffee toffee ice cream sandwich. She liked it a lot, but when I tried it I felt that the coffee flavor was too strong.

Here is Lieto showing us here MUNCHIE FACE!

I chose the caramel banana nut ice cream bar. This was packed with an extreme banana flavor and laced with a stream of caramel down the middle of the bar. I really liked this one and would like to try this as an ice cream sandwich.
Here is my MUNCHE FACE! Looks like I'm super excited, huh?~ Bootsi

LOTERIA GRILL part II

Farmers Market LA
6333 W. 3rd ST.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
www.lafarmersmarket.com

Loteria is easily one of my favorite Mexican places. I went here with a friend the other day and this place never seems to disappoint. Of course I got my usual huevos rancheros. It was so good that my damn fork broke and I could push myself to leave the huevos alone and get another one, but my fat ass finally did. For some reason, I still cannot stray away from the huevos. I just have to order it every time. It will be a big heart breaker if I get something else and it didn't satisfy me. OUCH!!! That would hurt. When I was done, I realized that they never gave me my freshly made tortills!

So my friend got the chilaquiles. She and I were just talking about chilaquiles the other day. We were discussing how hard it is to find chilaquiles on menus. BAAAM, biatch, just what the doctor ordered!!!! Right in our faces! This my friends is chilaquiles the way its supposed to be done. Fried chips smothered in home-made red chile guajillo sauce (rojo), sprinkled with queso fresco and topped off with a good helping of crema. It came on a big ass plate and it was so good that she finished every last bite! That's how we roll, playas! ~ BOOTSI

Ruth Chris

2961 Michelson Drive
Irvine, CA 92612
www.ruthschris.com

Here I am for a birthday dinner at Ruth Chris. There is something special about sizzling butter that brings a tear to my eye. The Irvine Ruth Chris that we went to on this day is located in a big strip mall, so there is plenty of parking unless you want to boost your ego and valet your car. The service was nothing great. We asked for butter four times and finally received it when the food came out.
I ordered a side of French fried onion rings and boy oh boy, these things were marvelous. This is by far the best onion ring that I have ever had. Everything about these rings were perfect. I hate it when you bite into an onion ring and the whole slice of onion comes out with it. You get a fat slice of onion hanging from your mouth and fried breading in your hand. That's bullshit! That's not how an onion ring should be, damn it. I call these "the ring that dominates all rings!"

For the main course, I ordered the filet and added a bleu cheese crust for a little extra $$$. On the website it says that it's the moist tender cut of corn fed Midwestern beef. I'm gonna have to agree with it. Steaks are seared at 1800 degrees and comes out on a hot ass blistering plate with sizzling butter."Oohhhs" and "ahhhhhs" came from our table. The filet was really tender but lacked that beefy flavor that other steaks have. Thank goodness for the butter because we all know butter makes things happen.

Everybody really enjoyed thier dinner. There was really no complaints as far as the food goes. Service wise, that's another story. ~Bootsi

SIMON LA

8555 W. Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90048
www.sofitella.com
My friend and I have had Simon LA on our to do list for a while now, ever since we found out that they served cotton candy for dessert. Located right next to the Beverly Center, in the Sofitel Hotel, this place breathes hip and elegance, so we fitted right in. haha

I could not recall what we ordered, but it was like a prefixed lunch. We ordered two different lunches, at $25 each, so we could have a taste of each other's goodies. The lunch came altogether on one big plate with little plates on top. My friend's lunch consisted of roasted tomato gauzpachio soup. I really liked how refreshing the cold soup was, but my friend did not. It tasted like cold tortilla soup. Heirloom tomato and burrata cheese with first pressed olive oil and basil. She said this was really good. The main dish was the surf and turf tacos. The surf was lobster and the turf was beef tenderlion. She really enjoyed them, too. They were really small though. For dessert, it came with a slice of key lime pie. That was really good, but not as good as the lemon gelato pie from Pizza Mozza.

My lunch consisted of a Belgian endive and watercress salad with caramelized walnuts, Fuji apples and point reyes bleu cheese. It came in one of those Chinese togo boxes. This was a refreshing salad. My appetizer was the bluefin tuna tartar with lemongrass oil and ginger rice crisps. The tuna tasted fresh and the lemongrass oil went really well with it. My main dish was the roasted halibut with quinoa, currants and pine nuts. The halibut had a little fishy smell to it, but was still good. The fish had a crunch on the outside and just flaked right up when I stabbed it with my fork. For dessert, it came with peanut butter fudge sundae. This was OK because by the time I was ready to eat the ice cream it was almost half melted! It did pack a mean peanut butter flavor.

This place was cool but next time I would just order off thier regular menu. The waiters were cool, too and I really liked the interior.

MILK

7290 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca 90036
www.themilkshop.com

Here are my friends doing the "Munchie Face"

We journeyed out to MILK for a late night "sweet tooth" craving. Boy did that totally hit the spot. The interior was all white with displayed desserts at the counter. My eyes got big when I walked in because the first thing that caught my eye were the frozen treats display.

The strawberry sorbet ice cream sandwich was amazing. The flavors were doing the happy dance on my tongue and I was doing the happy dance in my seat. This was really good because the sorbet was sandwiched between two macaroon cookies. That's right, just like the little things I get from Boule.

One of my friends got the special sandwich of the day, grilled ham n cheese with poached eggs in white sauce, that I cannot recall the name of. This, my friends, was the shit. The sauce was awesome and everything together was even better. All I got to say is that poached eggs are the "Shit"! I totally regret not ordering this myself because when she offered me a bit, I wanted it all!

The blue velvet cake caught our eye so we had to get it. Starring into to blue colored cake, I knew it contained wonderful flavors that were just waiting for me to taste. I really liked the blueberry taste of this cake, but I really enjoyed how soft and moist it was. My friend disagreed and said that she is gonna stick with red velvet from now on.

I order house made bon bons. I did not care for the toffee flavored bon bons, but I really did enjoy the mint n chip bon bons.

The cookies n cream ice cram bar was really good too. The ice cream on the inside was rich and creamy and the outside was full of crushed cookies.

I am so glad that this place is far away because I would be one fat ass biatch! I like this place so much, if I lived closer, I would come here everyday and wait for it to open. I would get a job here and get paid my bon bons.~ Bootsi

GREEN FIELD CHURRASCARIA

5305 E. Pacific Coast Highway
Long Beach, CA 90804
http://www.greenfieldchurrascaria.com/

You have to go to a Brazilian churrascaria at least once before you die. These places are amazing and a carnivore's dream come true. For under $30 dollars a person, you will be treated to an astounding array of roasted meat. There is also a salad bar that all kinds of stuff to be eaten at your discretion. There is a little wood cylinder on every table. When the cylinder is on red, the workers with the meat just pass you by. When the green is on top, it tells the workers to bring on the meat. Bringing on the meat is what they do best.

Going around tables, these workers bring the meat to you. They bring the whole slab of meat and cut a piece or two for you. Look at how crisp it is on the outside. so good!

This was a perfectly cook piece of rib eye. It was soft and juicy and went really well with the roasted veggies that I got from the salad bar.

This was also brought to our table. Roasted chicken was amazing! Straight from the fire, the skin from the chicken was light and crisp. The meat and flavor of the chicken was great. Nothing bad for me to say about this meat. The sausage was flavorful and moist.

The skirt steak was good. It did have a livery taste to it, but that happens a lot to skirt steaks. Either way the meat was really juicy.

This is probably one of the best flans that I have ever tasted. It is really rich and creamy. It sticks to the roof of your mouth, that's how thick it is! Bomb Shit!

This was a really fun experience. The meats come out as you please and it is a great way to eat a bit of everything. The meats were good and most were cooked medium rare to medium. I really like this place and can't wait to go back. ~BOOTSI

FLEMMING'S STEAKHOUSE

2301 W. Rosecrans Ave #1199
El Segundo, CA 90245
www.flemingssteakhouse.com

This is my 4th time making it out to Flemmings Steakhouse. Located on Rosecrans by the Pacific Theaters, it is a convenient stop after or before the movies. Today I watched 300 with my dad. This was an amazing movie that mad me feel like I should go on a diet...starting tomorrow!

Flemmings was very dark and pretty ghetto compared to my pass visits. It was dark enough where I felt like I walked into the movies all late and shit. Ghetto because I saw numerous people in there wearing baggy ass jeans and a white T. Whatever happen to the good old days when the workers at the front desk would look at you all disgusted and shit to hint you that you're not at a burger joint and that your ass best come dressed just a little nicer next time? lol Sounds harsh but that's what happened to me the first time I came hear and they looked at me up and down, then sent us outside to the patio with the quickness. haha

Well spur of the moment trip here, had us looking like the rest of the diners. They gave us complimentary toasted crunchy slices of bread and a blue cheese dip and some other dip. The blue cheese dip was amazing. We ordered a side of sauteed mushrooms with our steak. It had both button and portabello mushrooms that was sauteed in butter and whole cloves of garlic. I love mushrooms, so this was right up my alley.

The creamed corn was amazing. This is not your mom's cream corn. It was not runny at all, like the many that I have tried, but more like a casserole. It had melted Parmesan and Gruyere cheese it and was topped of with crispy fried jalapenos. I couldn't get enough of this side.

We ordered the 16 oz bone in filet mignon, which was one of the specials of the night. It was extra tender and soft. The only problem with this steak was that we asked for it to be done medium, but it was given to us rare.

The prime 22 oz bone-in ribeye was damn good! Cooked to the way I liked it, it was soft and juicy. I really don't know how else to explain it besides "Delish!"

It is always a great time when I spend it with Pops. ~ Bootsi

BUCA DI BEPPO

1670 South Pacific Coast Highway
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
www.bucadibeppo.com

I drove down to Redondo Beach for a friend's bday a couple of weeks ago. There is no parking anywhere at this place so you have to get it valeted, which roughly cost around $2. Once you're inside and they get your table ready, they take you through their bustling kitchen for a quick view.

It was just four of us but we some how ordered enough for a family of ten! We first started out with a large pizza (1/2 pepperoni, sausage and red onions and 1/2 pepperoni and peppercinis. The flat thin crust pizza was full of grease from the toppings, not like that's a bad thing. The pepperoni and sausage pizza was a good combination with a little bit of spiciness and saltiness.

This other side of the pizza was just as greasy. I had to dab it with numerous napkins. The peppercinis and pepperoni accompany one another really well. The crust on both sides of the pizza was really soggy because of the grease, it reminded me of when i used to microwave Jeno's frozen pizza.

Gnocchi al telefono was a decent dish. Its potato dumplings tossed in marinara sauce and topped with fresh mozzarella and basil. It was a very hearty dish that made me full rather quickly. I was looking for the chicken cacciatore on the menu but couldn't find it. Come to find out, the restaurant 86 my favorite item from the menu! Fortunately, the waiter told us that the kitchen staff could make it for us..and so they did. It was a whole roasted chicken on top of buttery garlic mashed potatoes and smothered in cacciatore that was full of vegetables. This was so good, I kept on eating even after I was full.

It is a cool place to eat if you are really hungry or if you are with a big hungry group. There are two portions of food served at this place and they are big and bigger. ~Bootsi

WING STOP

20700 AVALON BLVD
CARSON, CA 90746
and many other loctions
http://www.wingstop.com/

There is something about wings! I don't know why they are so good (they have barely any meat, a lot of skin and a lot of bones). I guess all those bad things = something good. Hot wings are great but only a couple of places make outstanding hot wings (Bj's Brewery, Hooters and Pizza Machine).

Wing Stop doesn't do a great job of making hot wings either, nor do their teriyaki glazed wings (pictured on the right) do a better job. It was actually pretty darn discussing. A sticky thick extra sweet glaze was not happening from the beginning, but being Chinese, I felt obligated to eat it all and I did..uuUUAAHHH!!

What was happening was the lemon pepper chicken wings (pictured on the left). These were amazing! The skin was still crisp and the meat was juicy. The flavor was out of this world!

Their fries were good, maybe a little too over seasoned for me, but were good none the less. They were the soft soggy kind, so if you want the crispy fries.... go to Burger King and have it your way! The BBQ beans were pretty good too. It tasted just like Pork n Beans, but just a tad sweeter.

Whenever I come back here, the only chicken wings I will even bother getting would be the lemon pepper ones. Bomb shit!~ Bootsi

KING TACO

12102 Long Beach Blvd.
Lynwood, CA 90262
www.kingtaco.com

This was my first time ever going to King Taco. I was so excited because I have heard so much good things about their tacos and their sublime hot sauce. I would of been here a lot sooner had I known it was right down the street from my torta spot (Gallo Giro) in Plaza Mexico. I thought this place would be a hole in the wall but I was totally wrong! This place was big and reminded me of Burger King with murals of Aztec warriors on the wall.

So I ordered 2 carne asada tacos with everything. The first thing that stood out to me was the tortillas, it wasn't an off white like I was used to, it was yellow and the texture was soft yet chewy. It was really good. The carne asada was good but not great. The red sauce on the other hand was amazing, not too over powering, just perfect!

I also tried the al pastor, marinated pork, taco. That was hands down the highlight of the trip. The flavorful crispy pieces of pork was sinful. Man that was one hell of a taco. The other taco I ate was filled with carnitas. This was really good too, but after I ate the al pastor that was all I was really thinking about, that and the red sauce.

I guess on weekends they serve rotisserie chicken dinners. My friend had told me so much good things about the chicken that I made sure we got it even if it was a 20 minute wait. Full and stuffed after the tacos, the whole chicken finally came out of the rotisserie and our # was finally called. It came with a package of steaming hot tortillas, packaged chips and beans. The chicken was melt in your mouth good. The skin was extra flavorful and salty and because of that my drink was disappearing at an alarming rate (no free refills).
All in all I was really impressed by this place. The food was good and cheap, the red hot sauce was amazing and so was the green sauce that everyone seems too over look. The only disappointing part was the chips. I thought that they could of been a little more authentic than packaged chips! ~ Bootsi

PIZZA MOZZA part II

I was pretty disappointed with my first review of Pizza Mozza because I didn't have pictures to show readers what I ate. I have been itching to go back ever since then. I finally had a chance to go there during spring break and to my delight we were seated at a table and not the bar. I took many pictures and I felt like a food paparazzi. I think I came close to crashing into the waiters when I was trying to get that one good shot! Thank goodness no one got hurt.

Like I said before this place was packed, but somehow we were seated right away (It just shows you how hot looking people get treated.....not me, the two ladies that I was with.) We ordered the brussel sprouts with prosciutto breadcrumbs. It was a little weird at first because of the bitter taste, but the more I ate it, the more I couldn't get enough of it. Never was a brussel spout fan, but this ended up pretty good. There wasn't much prosciutto, but you could taste it's salty flavor. The only sad part to this dish was that it came out a little cold.

I decided to get the egg, asparagus, onion & pramigiano pizza after hearing good things about it from other bloggers. This is supposed to be the only pizza that's not cut at the counter because the egg yolk would run all over the place and ruin your crust, but to my surprise it was already cut! They did not cut through the yolk though, so I had to pop it myself. This was an amazing pizza. The toppings worked wonderfully together; soft sweet onions, perfectly cooked asparagus and a runny yolk equals "the Shit!"

This is the squash blossoms, burrata & tomato pizza. This was damn good too! The burrata made all the difference, it was soft, sweet and refreshing. It went really good with the crust, but then again this crust is amazing, so I guess anything would be good with it.

I take back that comment that I said earlier. Not everything goes good with the crust. An example would be this, the bufala mozzarella, speck & black olive tapenade. This was by far gotta be the worst thing on the menu. The tapenade was terrible. If the olive tapenade wasn't there this pizza might of been pretty good. The tapenade totally overpowered the rest of the toppings.
I ordered this to go for my brother and his wife, but guess where the fennel sausage, panna & red onion pizza go? That's right, it went home with me and eventually settled in my stomach like broccoli between teeth. This was just as good as last time, with big boulders of sausage and extra sweet red onions and creamy panna.

My dessert was the rum raisin gelato and chocolate chip gelato. The rum raisin was strong on rum but was decent. Thought my low tolerance of alcohol was gonna turn my face into the color of a baboon's ass, but thank goodness that it didn't. Unfortunately, I would pass on this the next time I come.

The butterscotch pudding is always a winner. It's a very relaxing dessert.

The the best overall dish of the night would be the lemon gelato pie. Man when I tell you this thing makes your mouth water, I really mean that! In fact this pie might even make your eyes water, it's that damn good! The lemon flavor totally explodes on your tongue. I don't think I will ever get another dessert from this place after eating this one.

So I think I have a crush on Nancy Silverton. There is just something about her that I find intriguing. It might be her desire for perfection, her work ethic, her curly hair. Even when I saw here leaving, they way she dressed was cute! Next time I'm gonna ask her to take a picture with me!

PIZZA MOZZA
641 N. Highland Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90036
http://www.mozza-la.com/