Joan's on Third

Joan's on Third is an awesomely busy food market/deli/bakery/restaurant filled with savory and sweet smells!! They had the most tempting cheese and dessert displays ever! And it seemed that everyone was also scarfing up their freshly breads.

We stopped by for lunch and luckily we were able to get a table. We were overwhelmed by the yummy food in the counter. So many vegetable dishes, they looked so good! (this is the one time it wouldn't be so bad to be a vegetarian). We ordered a MUFFULETTA (soprassata, mortadella, provolone, fontina and New Orleans olive mix on a Rustic Roll), PRESSED CHICKEN, BACON & BRIE with carmelized onions on French baguette and we felt brave a decided to order the Toasted Israeli Couscous (which was fabulouso!!!)

And we cant forget about dessert!! They had an impressive array of cupcake flavors ($3 each such as: chocolate cupcake, vanilla cupcake, coconut cupcake,
chocolate cupcake with coconut topping, vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting, vanilla cupcake with raspberry filling, marshmallow cream filled chocolate cupcake, peanut butter filled chocolate cupcake, snickers cupcake, carrot cupcake (yea, just a bit, haha)

And they were decorated so cute, not alot of gimmick topping but just enough like the chocolate sprinkles, or the snickers bar crumbled on the top, or the enormous mound of marshmallow on top.

We tried the cupcake special, vanilla lemon and the marshmallow filled cupcake.

Definitely blog worthy!

Hotcakes Bakes

Yay! Finally, a cupcake post! I went to check out Hotcakes Bakes in Culver City on Centinela. They had a great selections of cupcakes and bars, but I was only interested in the cupcakes. They have a variety of cupcakes that are available everyday and then they have a few specials too. I bought a cookies n cream, English toffee (both $3) and raspberry chocolate mousse ($3.50). I was very impressed with the quality of the cupcakes. The frosting was very smooth and not too sweet (which is sometimes a problem). My favorite frosting was the English toffee. It had little crumbs of heath bar on top and the flavor was light a creamy (unfortunately I ate this one before I could take a picture, I got too excited!!). And the cake was the moistest cake I've ever had! The cookies n cream was good too, good flavor, but choc. cake was too dry. My favorite cupcake was the raspberry choc. mousse. The frosting had the perfect fruity butter cream, the and the thick layer of chocolate covering the cake was the best part! Something definitely to try again! Check out their website, lots of yummy pictures!

Westside Tavern

Finally!!!! The Westside Tavern opened! I've been waiting for this restaurant to open since last year when they said it was going to open. Now I can officially have the "dinner and a movie" combo (and the list of cocktails and beers were quite impressive). It's located downstairs from the best movie ( its because of the couches!) theater in west LA; the Landmark Theater.

My good friend (my only other LA friend who gives me the scoop on whats really cool to do in this city! )and her boyfriend met us at the new restaurant for dinner. We ordered the Baby Artichoke Gratin with sourdough toast (good, but not enough to satisfy) and the Crispy Blue Lake Green Beans with meyer lemon aioli (excellent!!-just enough crispiness, reminded me of tempura). For our entrees they ordered a Grilled Prime Flat Iron Steak with Kennebec potato fries and bearnaise sauce and Prime Beef Short Rib Pot Roast with glazed carrots and buttery mashed potatoes. Both looked delicious and smartly decorated. I had the Spit-Roasted Lemon and Mustard Chicken with wilted garlic spinach which I was very pleased with. Not only did I get practically a half chicken but the flavors were bold and juicy.

And, of course, we can't go without dessert. The Strawberry Shortcake was good. There was marscapone cheese on top with vanilla bean ice cream. The dough was crispy and flaky with big sugar crystals on top. We also sampled the Hot Fudge Pudding cake plated with Tahitian vanilla ice cream and candied walnuts- yum!!

Overall, the food was definitely worth the wait. The prices were fair for the amount of food you get but expect to spend quite a bit if you want to indulge in the full flavors of drinks and food from the Westside Tavern.

Rush Street

When Rush Street first opened up it was the new heart of Culver City's nightlife. It's got a great, energetic atmosphere with an inside-outside eating area (with heaters, of course!) and a fabulous bar that pretty much encompasses the whole first floor. The booths inside are large and cozy and the small loft upstairs could be a site for vips. I can't say that I'll visit during rush hour but I did join them for their brunch recently. I can proudly say that I had my very own "brunch burger" called the red eye burger-cheddar, apple wood smoked bacon, carmelized onions, arugula, fried egg and spicy hollandaise. All I can say is.....YUM!! and I got to choose a side of garlic skinny fries, sweet potato fries or tater-tots (tempting...). The other things looked good on the menu too! My friend ordered the Rush Street dry aged burger with fries (applewood bacon, shoestring onions, cheddar and confire sauce...she got the tater-tots!) The brunch, lunch and dinner menus look fabulous. Next time I'll have to order drinks too!!

Metro Cafe

I don't know why I dont live at this place because everytime I go here I am absolutely amazed by the quality of the food. I can't say enough good things about the Metro Cafe except that these pictures will make your mouth water. We took our friends here for dinner and everyone's food looked and tasted amazing.

The Goulash with Mushrooms had great flavors and had a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and tender meat. The Salmon Spagetti was a surprising favorite among us as well. The Chicken Bolognese was great too. I just love the big shavings of parmesan cheese on top! I'd have to say that next time I go I'll have to get the Vienna Schnitzel (which someone at our table got) because it was sooooo good! Not only did it come with scrumptious fries, but the way they prepare the battered schitzel took me back to Octoberfest! I also have to recommend the Steak Rigatoni which came with the juiciest cuts of steak on a bed of pasta -sorry, no pics :(. But if you do stop by, this place is a jewel for excellent food.

http://www.metrocafela.com/

LA's 2009 Cupcake Challenge

Welcome to Tour De Cupcake! If any of you were lucky enough to get into the sold out cupcake show down March 29, please tell me that you are still wallowing in your sugar coma like me!? Guilty as charged! I had the most fabulous time at the cupcake challenge at Hollywood's Renaissance Hotel. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to attend, and how much it succeeded my expectations. I was happy to see a great variety of original flavored cupcakes such as peanut butter and jelly, sweet potato pie, dulche de leche, wild berry, lavender, pumpkin and my favorite Casanovas Kiss (chocolate-hazelnut with pistachios).

Classic local bakeries from la and Orange county compeated for a place under Best Original, Best Traditional and Best Overall. If you wanted to sample the best bakeries close to your town, then this was the place to be. I was particularily happy to see the West La bakeries representing the sweets! Since I've started my Cupcake tour, I've only been to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills (and I have a very biased opinion on their cupcakes which I'll have to write in another post) but I was so excited to try the other bakeries I've heard so much about. Hotcakes Bakery, Buttercake Bakery, and Blue Cupcake were just a few in my local area of west La. My favorite flavors were: Red Raspberry Velvet by Two Parts Sugar, Sweet Potato Pie by Southern Girl, Casanovas Kiss by Sugar Jones, Dulche De Leche by Pokadots, and Red Velvet from Cuppacakes. So when is next years?!

M Cafe- Downtown Culver City

Again, another lazy afternoon weekend in Culver City and were looking for a good place to eat. We always pass by the M cafe and there's always a crowd, so we decide to check it out. We're aware that the menu is mainly vegetarian, but there's gotta be some meat, right? Well, there's meat alright, fake meat. The menu is macrobiotic which is all organic. The deli part of the restaurant looks actually quite tasty, featuring a full array of baked goods, sushi and salads. This place is perfect for the on-the-go "veggie". Theres plenty of pre-made fresh ingredients. Think of it as an uber Fresh and Easy store. So we order a grilled veggie salad: romaine, zesty basil-pesto and avocado lemon vinaigrette and Seitan Katsu Bowl: crispy seitan cutlet, with tangy katsu sauce, shredded cabbage and steamed veggies and brown rice.

My husband is strictly a meat kind of guy, so having "fake" chicken was a struggel for him (good thing he was hungry). Although the flavors were well prepared and fresh, nothing tops food like some good ol' red meat! However, I found my salad to be very flavorful. The avocado-lemon vinaigrette was something I'll have to recreate at home, I really did like it. The grilled veggies were great too, but I would prefer warm instead of cold veggies.

Overall, not a bad place to be in Culver City (although I've never been to a bad one!). I'll probably come by again to try the sushi or some other salads, but leave the hubby at home!

http://www.mcafedechaya.com/