Sunday, April 17, 2005

[eats] Gyu-Kaku (Los Angeles, CA)

I gotta hand it to the Japanese - they got a Japanese version of the all the popular world cuisine, and they are all sooo good. Be it French dessert, Indian curry, Italian pasta, Chinese chow-mein, and last but not least, Korean BBQ.

That's what Gyu-Kaku serves up - Korean BBQ with a Japanese twist. The restaurant is wonderfully intimate, lit with a warm darm glow. Definitely a great date place. Another reason that makes it a great date place - Dollar Beers. Yep. 1 dollar. Gotta call again to check the hours on that offer.

Like Korean BBQ, you grill the meat DYI over hot coal. But you get Japanese Ponzu sauce to go with it. Yum. They also serve cow tongue (also yum), which I suppose could make you wonder a bit ...

My advice: When at Asian restaurant, do as Asians do. Really, the cow tongue can't hurt ya.

10925 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 234-8641
www.gyu-kaku.com

[eats] Neptune's Net (Malibu, CA)

Probably one of most casual restaurant you'll find along the Malibu coast. When I think of Neptune's Net I recall:

- Harleys, Harleys, Harleys
- Kids, Kids, Kids
- Shrimp, Shrimp, Shrimp

The line was ridiculously long and the place ridiculously busy, but I gotta admit, when we were finally chowing down the pound-o-jumbo-shrimp (which were alive until the minute we ordered them), our smiles were sure ridiculously wide.

And hey, why wouldn't you be happy. Welcome to Malibu!

42505 Pacific Coast Hwy
Malibu, CA 90265
(310) 457-3095

[eats] Taqueria Chihuahua (Santa Monica, CA)

Ha! The place where my co-workers called "dangerous Mexican" got a 8.5 on CitySearch! (And, yes, I specifically looked for that "A" sign out front the other day)

The name Taqueria Chihuahua does somewhat make you wonder if they serve dog burritos. But, let me assure you that their All Meat Burrito ($4.25) is da bomb. Both chicken and carne asada are terrific. It is like a Mexican "street" restaurant. No fancy decor. No waiting staff. Just order, grab plastic bench, eat.

As much as I love my vegetables, an All Meat Burrito sure goes a long way.

1922 Olympic Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404-3816
(310) 828-5003

[recipe] Pigs-in-a-blanket

One of my favorite (and probably one of the most fattening!) apperteasers:

Ingredients:
- 3 cans of Crescent Rolls (store brands are fine)
- 1 package of Lil-Smokies (I like the beef ones)
(Makes 48 of them lil-beauties)

Making them lil-pigs:
- Heat oven to 375
- Get two big cooking sheet / tray. Line with foil and light light layer of Pam.
- Layout the Crescent Rolls. Each can has 8 triangles. Slice each triagle in half along the long side, to make 16 triangles from each can.
- For each triangle, put a lil-smokie in there and roll it up.
- Do this until you have no triangles and no lil-smokies left.

- Put in oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. The tray on the top will be done first.
- Take out the top tray and put the bottom tray on top. Let it bake for another 5 or until golden brown.

Enjoy (and don't forget to go to the gym!). BTW, this is the by far the best fragrance one can ever have in the house.

p.s. Thanks to Corinne who taught me!

Monday, April 11, 2005

[find] Schoolhouse Rock

Wow. Schoolhouse Rock. Thank god I finally learned about this gem in the American pop culture history. Love it!

http://users.aol.com/MRandino/SHRockWWW.html

Sunday, April 03, 2005

[find] CulverCity interactive maps

Cool map tools for CulverCity. Real estate for sale, detailed property info, satellite photos, and more.

http://www.culvercity.org/citygov/itech/intact_maps.asp

[find] My favorite Apple II Games

Oh my. What a happy day! (and more reasons to not finish my taxes)

A Whole Lotta Apple II Games
http://radiovibrations.com/apple.htm

- Download the Games (old) 5.3M zip

- The page has an index of what the games out. Pick out the ones you want. My favorites:

gms8-2 ChopLifter

ms89 LodeRunner


AppleWin Emulator
ftp ftp.apple.asimove.net
> log in: anonymous/abc@xyz.com
> binary
> get pub/apple_II/emulators/applewin/applewin95complete.zip
- Unzip everything into the same directory.
- You must run the AppleWin.exe from DOS prompt.
- The emulator might take a while to "calibrate" to start. Just let it do its thing.

Notes
- Once it's started, click the "Joystick" icon on the bottom right, and change the joystick option to mouse.
- Go to your Control Panel and slow down your mouse speed to the slowest setting. Otherwise you'll be trashing your chopper.
- Click the first "disk drive" icon on the right hand bar. An "open file" box will pop up, click on the file to load, and then, click the "apple" icon to reboot the emulator
- For LodeRunner, remember the J-I-K-L keys control directions, and U-O keys dig holes.

Now, enjoy the rest of your day, feeling like you are 8 years old again!