The Lardon Truck

It's BAAAAAAAAAAAAACON!!!!!!!!!!!


(Brian scoping out the truck--I wanted a shot from the street, but it was so bright out and traffic was heavy enough that I gave up.)

Today, my friend Brian and I checked out The Lardon Truck while it was parked in Sherman Oaks.

Upon arriving, there was no line, which boggled my mind--how was there not a line down the block for this tasty, tasty fare?!?!

The menu is chosen with care and packed with greatness. I opted to get two items so I could try more than one thing, since Brian had already eaten lunch (he missed out--and said so, once he saw what I had).


(On the left are the bacon pancakes...on the right, the breakfast sandwich...yum!)

The dish I was looking forward to the most was the "bacon pancakes with bacon bourbon maple syrup"--which, of course, I ordered! :) It was good beyond my wildest expectations. The right kind of sweet and salty, with just enough of a hint of maple, as opposed to being overwhelmed by the taste of it. The serving is perfect for one person--not too much, not too little, and leaves enough that you could easily sample another item and not feel stuffed. I also liked that the pancakes were not overdone--sometimes, that happens with a lot of pancakes, and you end up with a sort of chewy/tough texture. Not so with these puppies. I can't wait to have them again!

I also ordered the breakfast sandwich ("smoked bacon, eggs over easy (although I had mine over medium) & cheddar"), which was also good. The roll it comes on is just chewy enough to add something interesting to the sandwich without making it difficult to eat. The cheddar was a good compliment to everything, and the bacon was wonderful--I swear, it had a little bit of sweetness to it. I also caught what I thought was black pepper in the sandwich, too. Overall, it'd be a solid choice for someone looking for a breakfast-at-any-time sort of meal.

We spent a lot of time hanging out in front of the truck, in the shade of their canopy (to hide from the 90+ degree Valley sun!). They provided a handful of small stools, which made for a great little place to sit down and eat. :) I have to say, everyone working on the truck was incredibly cool--very nice, gracious folks! Really made the visit even better! They were so nice that I even donated some change to the parking meter for the truck's spot. :) Just before we took off, we were offered some free bottles of water and a Lark brownie with bacon/Nutella spread on the house. So kind of them!


(So tasty...ignore the bite mark on the right side of it...)

I had one bite of the brownie and sent it home with Brian, since he was full from his earlier lunch when he stopped by to meet me and hadn't had a chance to eat anything from the truck (even though I offered tasters of my dishes, like a good friend). It was awesome. The brownie itself is intense, and the combination of the Nutella and the bacon mixes well--very sweet and salty mix, which adds to the richness of everything and gives it almost a liqueur taste. Super decadent!

I'm looking forward to a going again and trying the baco (sans horseradish, if possible, because I am a total wuss). :)

You can follow the Lardon Truck on Twitter and Facebook to find out their schedule and check out their website at http://getyourlardon.com. We were told that they mostly hit up the Valley, Hollywood/Silverlake, with some stops on the west side. They are totally worth the drive!

Jones Apple Pie

So...I'm no fan of Jones...but their apple pie? Yum.





Their apple pie is redonkulicious. It is served in a hot skillet, with some kind of sexy buttery cinnamony goodness melted around it. The pie itself is exploding with apples. They pour out of the crust, and that crust...pretty tasty. The recipe changed at some point the last two years, and the current crust is, well, crusted with sugar. I think the old crust was maybe a bit better, but this one is pretty good as well. After all, I'm not gonna bitch about some added sugar. :) I think the pie itself as a little rosemary in it, but I could be wrong. It is also served with some tasty vanilla ice cream, which always melts too quickly because it's on the skillet (albeit, in a little dish), but still...absolutely tasty.

I don't really love any of the food at Jones, except for this. This pie...totally worth the trip.

The Comme Ca Burger

And on the eighth day, the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Comme Ca burger.




Comme Ca is a French place on Melrose, near La Cienega, and it has various French dishes and whatnot. But the only thing I bother to order while there is the burger.

This is a burger that can make me drool on command. One thought of it...and I'm salivating.

It's very simple. There is some kind of slaw that comes on it, but I always have them hold it. The fries are perfect--some crispy, some crunchy, right amount of salt, good width/length. The burger itself is large, with just the right amount of seasoning (which is to say, not so much that you wonder what they're trying to cover up). It's juicy. It's topped with yummy cheddar cheese. It's on a brioche bun.

One of the things I love about this burger is that it isn't junked up with a bunch of shit like a lot of other designer burgers (i.e. The Father's Office Burger, which everyone raves about, but which I find just okay). It relies on the quality of the meat, the cheese, the bun...which means that it doesn't have the luxury of sucking.

I will say that you should order it closer to medium rare, just for the juiciness factor. I ordered mine medium today, and it came out more well-done than I'd have liked (like medium-well), especially compared to previous visits.

The only other items I've had on the menu are the creme brulee (good--but it's hard to fuck that up, and I love it anyway) and these little, fresh baguettes that they used to give out as pre-meal bread. I didn't get a baguette today, which bummed me out--not sure if they stopped that practice or not, since it's been a while since I've eaten there.

So, having eaten this ridiculously filling burger, I am now going to sit on my couch like Jabba the Hutt and enjoy my AC on this insanely hot LA day. Because I won't be hungry again for the rest of the day, kind of like how a boa constrictor can eat a small child and live off of it for a week.

(Oh, and price? Around $15.)

(Oh, and my computer doesn't have a way to use the actual French letters needed for the actual name of the restaurant, or if it does, I don't know how to do it. And don't care enough to learn.)

BACON!

Um, so if you know me, you know I love me some bacon.

A friend just sent me the following article:

Lardon: Bacon Food Truck, on UrbanDaddy

I am so going to hunt this truck down and eat the shit out of its menu.

Out of LA: Mackinac Island Fudge

So, my favorite ice cream ever is called Mackinac Island Fudge, and it can only be found in the Michigan area (as well as some parts of Wisconsin, and one store in Illinois, where it is seasonal).

I love it.

There was a point in time where I went two years without having it. Those two years were sad.

At any rate, when I was home visiting Chicago in July, I took a short trip to Upper Michigan (where my family has a small house), and I was able to indulge. I think I had Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream three times in five days.

And the thing about Michigan...is that a single dip there is equivalent to a triple dip anywhere else:



Yum.

It's a very simple mix--vanilla ice cream, with ripples of chocolate fudge and chunks of chocolate fudge--but it's just so effing good.

Someone on Twitter just introduced me to the Wisconsin Made website, which actually sells pints of Mackinac Island Fudge from a company called Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream. Their ice cream is INCREDIBLE, although I'm not sure I've ever had their MIF. The ice cream is so good that their logo says, "You want nutrition, eat carrots." Amen.

Ordering their pints of ice cream and shipping them to LA isn't cheap (approx. $60+ to ship 4 pints to LA), but it might be worth it...I'm thinking about it. :)

Berendo Stairs to Griffith Park Observatory

The other day, I attempted to go up to hike at Griffith Park, only to find myself in a tangled mess of traffic due to a concert at the Greek Theatre. I opted to backtrack and go explore a set of stairs that I'd been interested in walking up for a while: The Berendo Stairs.



The stairs are located at the top of Berendo Street, on Cromwell, about a block north of Los Feliz Blvd, just west of Vermont. There's a lovely little entrance, which leads to a somewhat steep set of stairs. There are about 100 stairs to climb up before you come to a rest point, which has two semi-circular stone benches on each side of the path. Above the rest point, there are about 70 more steps until you reach the street.





Once you arrive at the top of the staircase, you can go to your right and walk up the street and around the bend to locate another staircase, which is next to a garage of a yellowish house. That staircase has about 70 steps, which take you up between two homes and veers off to the left. It comes out on Glencairn, at the end of a cul-de-sac.





Once on the cul-de-sac, you turn right and follow the street out to a fork/t-junction in the road. You follow the fork to the left (I think it's called Catalina) and continue on up the streets. You'll reach another fork, where Catalina becomes Glendower (the signs are a bit confusing), and you'll keep to the right. Continue on up the hill...you'll reach another bend in the road eventually, where there is another set of stairs going down (marked "public walk")--you can use those as a short cut back down to the Berendo Staircase, which I'll explain later.

Anyway, continuing on up the street, you will come to another fork in the road. To the left is Glendower Road, which is a "No Outlet" street. To the right is Glendower Avenue. You'll want to go to the left. You'll follow the street a short way until it dead ends.



To the left, you will find a small gate over a single lane paved road (next to a house). You can enter Griffith Park from this gate. There is a door on the left of it, which is supposed to be locked at sundown**. **(update: This gate IS locked at sundown--be sure to plan your hike accordingly, or you'll be forced to climb the fence and jump over, which can be done--because I had to do it--but it's not exactly fun!)



The single paved road snakes up the hill, leading to a network of other paths, one of which is a dirt path that veers to the left, up the hill. Follow that path, which will lead you to a trio of paths under the Observatory. If you take the path to the right, you will end up walking out right next to the Observatory!





This is a beautiful and unusual walk, as it incorporates these neat, beautiful (and in some cases, old) staircases...quiet, curvy roads in the hills, with beautiful homes everywhere...and quiet paths inside Griffith Park. The scenery is lovely, it's a mostly quiet trip (more folks around the Observatory), and it's almost entirely uphill from the time you start at the base of the Berendo Staircase, up to the Observatory. This is also a walk/hike that you can add or subtract from, depending on how active/energetic you feel.

The staircase that I mentioned earlier? The shortcut? That staircase, if you take it down, will lead to another staircase on a cul-de-sac. Take that second one and you'll find yourself on the same street where the Berendo Staircase ends up on...once you've come down the second staircase, you go to the right and follow the street down to the Berendo Staircase, which will be on your left hand side.



You can also add more on to your hike once you are in Griffith, either by exploring the other paths below the Observatory (which I haven't done), or continuing through the parking lot once you come out of the path at the top and moving into the network of paths behind the Observatory.

I believe that the route that I took was about 2 miles round trip--having a hard time figuring it out from my map, but that looks to be close. Add in around 250 stairs (climbing upward), give or take, too. Makes for a shorter trip, but has the potential for a good little workout! My legs are definitely sore!

Pretzel M&Ms

I really want to say that these bad boys are fucking fantastic. Because, really, who doesn't love chocolate covered pretzels? Perfect combo of salty and sweet.

But these...are just okay. The main problem is that the pretzels seem a little stale. I don't know if it was just the package I bought, or if it's something that plagues this version of M&Ms. I will say, though, that this is probably one of the more successful offshoots of M&Ms in recent years, save for Peanut Butter M&Ms, which nobody can fucking touch. I love those creamy bastards.

I tried the caramel ones, which made a quick appearance years ago--found them at some random shop, I can't even remember where--and they were baaaaad. Low quality caramel, had a weird overly sweet chemical taste and odd texture. I've never tried the coconut version, as I have a major aversion to almost anything coconut (except for Samoa Girl Scout Cookies--and the Dreyer's Slow Churned Samoa Ice Cream, which is kinda awesome). I avoided the raspeberry version, too, as I was afraid it would be too Fake Raspberry tasting for me (I loathe fake raspberry).

So, maybe I just think these are the most successful because they're the only ones I was interested enough to eat. :)

Anyway, they're not bad. I'd definitely opt for Regular, Peanut Butter or Peanut before getting these again, though--or just getting some actual chocolate covered pretzels. Also, side note, very small portion size in the bag I had--very few pieces. Maybe that's why it was only 150 calories or something.

Also, on another side note, what is with that X-Ray view of the Yellow M&M (aka Mr. Panicky)? What the fuck is that? To me, it implies, "Hey, you're eating my intestines." Look, M&Ms, if I want sausage, I'll eat sausage. But I don't want it anywhere near my candy.