The Daily Bite

Debunking the California Cuisine Myth

As promised, a blog about my trip to LA. I no longer believe that LA is the healthy food capitol of the world. There is a burger joint on every corner. They have Fatburger, Astroburger, Hamburger Hamlet and, God's gift to all burger lovers, In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out Burger is constantly mobbed. I bet even the skinny minny actresses (Jennifer Connelly, please EAT something!) go there and get a "Protein Style" - lettuce wrapped around the burger instead of a bun.

Though it was a brief trip with not enough time to hit a Jamba Juice, the two dinners I had also proved that there is rich, fattening food to be had in LA.

The first night, I went to dinner with four lovely ladies to a place Jennifer recommended -Ammo, and we ate like barbarian men. After our appetizers and soup, we ate hearty entrees - lamb chops, steak, meatloaf, porkchops and the poor vegetarian among us has risotto. We didn't stop there though, between the five of us, we got four desserts - gourmet ice cream sandwhiches, chocolate cake, mmmm. The very cute waiter was so surprised, he gave us a dessert for free with a reason something to the effect of, "you ladies really put it away".

The second night, Jamie took us to Lola's, the birthplace of the Sour Apple Martini. Their martini menu included at least 30 other choices which all sounded yummy, especially the French Kiss (with chocolate kisses) and the Clockwork Orange (with orange sherbet). If I lived in LA, I would make it my mission to try all of them. For dinner, though it could make a meal in itself, I had a side of homebaked macaroni & cheese to go with my chicken ravioli. Mmmmmm, a little bit of heaven. And again, it didn't stop there... three desserts split amoung five of us, the best being the fresh baked cookies, hot out of the oven, with a side of vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm. They ended our meal with a little tray of gumballs, which I proceed to swallow instead of chew. Some gum just needs to be swallowed, I can't stop myself.

All in all, I ate like a little piggy in LA and loved every minute of it. I can't wait to go back and have enough time to get a Jamba Juice before heading back to Lola's for more mac & cheese and a Clockwork Orange.