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tuna

C.O.D Restaurant - Seafood & Raw Bar - Beverly Hills

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C.O.D Restaurant - Seafood & Raw Bar - Beverly Hills

8408 W. 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048

8408 W. 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048

C.O.D hasn't quite officially opened yet. They are still undergoing their soft opening which means open to service. Fortunately, most of the menu items were available with some added additions not on the menu. The added additions are normally chilling with the others at the raw bar. It wasn't long before our tasting started. My drink of choice was a glass of red wine.

Minter Sweet Oysters

These were incredibly fresh and creamy. These were plump, sweet and had a slight lingering faint mineral taste. It was pretty much how it was described on the menu.

What I fell in love about C.O.D is the amount of items they had on their menu. You didn't just get seafood, but there were also other items like braised beef cheeks. See the whole spread below:

I was a huge fan of everything you see. Just to dance around the food, the spicy tuna crispy rice wasn't too spicy, but the rice was perfectly crispy with a nice soft chew from the rice. I'm not a fan of overly crispy rice cakes. This was nice and crispy on the outside and hot and fluffy on the inside.

I also loved the crispy pork belly. It was actually one of the favorites on the menu. I recommend ordering a beer to wash this done. It's sharable, but do you really want to? It's fine if you want to try a bunch of other dishes. This is a definite must order. The lobster roll was also extremely freakishly delicious. The lobster was perfectly cooked and jammed packed into a nicely crusted brioche bun. There's nothing better.

Then you have entrees like Braised Beef cheeks served over a creamy quinoa. This was definitely $$$$ quality and NOT something I would expect to find here. So delicious. I've never had quinoa prepared like the way it did here. Very decadent and definitely the show stopper. The uni pasta was also very unique. They use a nori fettucinni which causes the green color. The sauce had mentaiko folded in which is a very classic Japanese tradition used in some pasta dishes. The uni pasta also had truffle, but not over powering. Amazing subtle and friendly to the not so uni friendly crowds.

The desserts were rich and full of flavor. They will be getting coffee soon which will be great to get a jolt of pick me up.

Highly recommend C.O.D if you are looking for a place to dine. Beer, wine and sake are available. I believe a full liquor license will be on its way.

8408 W. 3rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90048

Cheers!

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Tacos Tu Madre - Westwood

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Tacos Tu Madre - Westwood

LA has definitely been a taco staple exploding into different counties. What I find is there are more contemporary fusion tacos than what you would find the past decade. Tacos Tu Madre not only offer your fusion tacos like Korean BBQ or Duck Mole, but also stays within your comfort zones by offering Asada, Carnitas, Al Pastor, Lengua, and Chorizo Egg which I HIGHLY recommend.

Tacos Tu Madre - 1945 1/2 Westwood BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90025

Chorizo and Eggs

This menu was taken a few months ago when I first visited the restaurant. This menu is located outside their take out window, but they also have one to look through for more in depth options. I've included their most recent menu to the left.

As you see, besides the tacos being more sophisticated, so are the prices. But, there are also more component to each taco that you order here. I brought John with me. Like myself and many of you who grew up with $1 tacos, find it blasphemy when a taco costs $1.25.

But as the economy is growing, so is everything else. That's right, a bundle of cilantro can cost 99 cents. Avocados are expensive as hell. And lemons are only used if it's a special occasion. You catch my drift.

Ahi Tuna

This is my favorite from everything I've had. For $4.75, this is totally worth it. Served on a crispy tortilla shell, the ahi tuna is cut in chunks and mixed with avocados, spicy citrus yuzu ponzu sauce, chives, sesame seeds and seaweed flakes.

The only thing I can say, is I can't extract the yuzu flavor. For some reason, I tasted a lot of ginger. Maybe I have poor taste buds. Maybe they don't even have any ginger in house. But it's extremely fresh and something I would never complain about. I would definitely order 2 of these and be content.

There are options to order this in a Burrito or a Bowl for additional charges. A burrito or bowl will supplement as a meal.

 

Chips and Guacamole

In other words, the Darth Maul version. How can you not think about that just by looking at these colors. Or maybe even Deadpool. Each chip has a helpful amount of salt, but not too much. Just enough to balance the guac. I couldn't help but dive back into this from time to time. Avocados are the good types of fat, and I will keep telling myself that everything it touches will become just that.

In the platter above, there's Duck Mole, Korean BBQ, Crispy Fish, Carnitas, and Lengua. The tortillas is not your standard 2 sheets, but one presumably hand made. You gotta eat these fast because the tortillas does break apart if it sits for a while. All the tacos were packed with flavor. I ate these tacos not keeping in mind with what I've grown up eating, but to keep an unbiased opinion based solely on flavors. So yes. I will pay over $3 bucks for a taco.

Street Corn

Street corn is my thing and something I love to make at home. This is not your elote you would find on the streets. Mayonnaise was missed, and it seems they use red chili flakes instead of cayenne. This does make eating a lot easier, and less messier than it would be on a cob. 

Red Velvet Churros

They have desserts like red velvet churros and frozen horchatas to help you move on with your day. The red churros were interesting and definitely had no resemblance from a traditional churro. These are much more dense. I would love the cream cheese frosting to be sweeter as well has the roll out of the cinnamon sugar that is coated.

Putting everything in thought, I would be back. Space is extremely limited, but tables turning over is fairly quick. It does help there are 2 Starbucks within a 1 mile radius.  They do have street parking with meters, a lot where you need to pay, or residential which is just around the corner which is what we did. Trust me, after these tacos, you should take the walk.

Tacos Tu Madre is snuck away, but has a giant colorful mural. If you are lost, but close, it's in between to 2 Starbucks I mentioned.

Good luck.

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Poke Salad Bar - Pasadena

"Summer is over" says the last 3 day weekend before all hell breaks loose for the rest of the year. I'm trying not to think about work, or the amount of money that's going to be spent now till next February.

The weekend, so far, has been absolutely beautiful. The weather was nice, sunny, and not too unbearable even though there were some heat in Pasadena. John and I went to the flea market today at Pasadena City College. It's only on the first Sunday of every month. There's no entrance fees, just find street parking, grab a Starbucks and head on over. The market is inside their parking structure and outside their lot. It's really a fun treat if you want to kill some time, be outdoors, getting some exercise, or just looking for unique items to decorate your homes with. Most of the little vendors are cash only, but once in a while you will find some stands that takes credit cards.

After spending about 45 minutes to an hour browsing through the aisles, we were hungry and ready to grab a snack.

By the way, breakfast consisted the usual bacon and eggs.

Since we were in Pasadena, we decided to head into Old Town. After little thought, we wanted to try this little joint called Poke Salad Bar.

What's great about PSB is the toppings that they offer, for free. I know this may sound weird, but I love imitation crab meat. I don't know why. Don't judge me either. There's just something comforting about how sweet it is... and growing up eating California rolls thinking it was sushi really made me appreciate them differently.

I ordered salmon and yellowtail with all the fixes minus the pineapple. I also added a yuzu vinaigrette which flavors were not present. John doubled down on the salmon with additional spicy tuna, but he did not go loco with the fix ins like I did.

The flavors were satisfying. I was also happy with the portions considering it being larger than Flour and Tea on Lake (which I'll never go again). I parked at the Fair Oaks structure since it's 90 minutes free. A quick lunch and a visit to Crate and Barrel did not run my time over 90 minutes.

I highly recommend this place if you are hungry, want something tasty, affordable, satisfying, and wouldn't feel too ripped off. The total for 2 after taxes came out to $21-ish.

Try it and let me know what you think. They also have other options like shrimp, tuna, and scallops. Rice can be substituted with salad and you can also make a burrito!

Now that the sun is going down, and dinner will be soon... it's time to get drunk. OH! And John found $5 on the floor which he made me pick up. I feel terrible, but at the same time, finders keepers losers weepers.

Happy 3 days! Cheers.

Daiisies

 

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