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Ice Cream & Coffee

April 24, 2011 | 9 Comments

Restaurant: Sweet Rose Creamery [1, 2] Location:  225 26th Ave, suite 51, Santa Monica, 90402  310-260-CONE Date: April 17, 2011 Cuisine: Homemade Ice Cream Rating: Very REAL ice cream. ANY CHARACTER HERE We were at the Brentwood Country Mart and I…

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The “Reform Kosher” for Passover Tuna Melt

April 23, 2011 | 0 Comments

We were scrounging around for lunch and came up with this variant passover tuna melt. While “passover” compliant it is in the tradition of the Great Trefa Banquet of 1883. You’ll see why. My wife did not participate — for the same…

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Passover Seder 2011 – day 2

April 22, 2011 | 1 Comments

This year we hosted the first seder (SEE HERE), but my Mom cooked the second. That means a very high bar of quality. Parker 91 for the 2001 Opus One. “Tasted twice Deep garnet-black colour. Still a lot of primary…

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Passover Seder 2011 – day 1

April 21, 2011 | 6 Comments

April rolls around and it’s seder time again, the ritual dinner celebrating the exodus from Egypt. As usual, things have to be done in full Gavin style. Various ingredients. There are all sorts of traditional requirements to this meal, the…

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The Hillel Sandwich

April 20, 2011 | 5 Comments

The Hillel Sandwich is a a traditional passover specialty. Simple in concept, it is a potent and delectable seasonal item. The base is matzah, unleavened bread (cracker-like). Seder participants recall the slavery that reigned during the first half of the night…

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Sotto – Sicily con Sardo

April 18, 2011 | 1 Comments

Restaurant: Sotto [1, 2, 3] Location:  9575 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035  310.277.0210 Date: April 16, 2011 Cuisine: Sicilian and Sardinian Italian Rating: Bold flavors, off to a great start! ANY CHARACTER HERE This new venture into the crowded…

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Upstairs 2 – Modern Tapas, Lots of Wine

April 17, 2011 | 3 Comments

Restaurant: Upstairs 2 Location:  2311 Cotner Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064 Tel. 310-231-0316 Date: October 10, 2010 & April 15, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Tapas Rating: Bright flavors and a lot of options. ANY CHARACTER HERE Upstairs 2 is located just…

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Bastide – Chef Number Six

April 16, 2011 | 8 Comments

Restaurant: Bastide Location: 8475 Melrose Pl, West Hollywood, CA 90069   323.651.5950 Date: April 14, 2011 Cuisine: Cal French Rating: Good, but a little uneven. ANY CHARACTER HERE For the April Foodie Club meeting, following hot on the heels of the March…

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Sushi Zo

April 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

Restaurant: Sushi Zo Location: 9824 National BlvdLos Angeles, CA 90034. (310) 842-3977 Date: April 8, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese / Sushi Rating: Top warm rice style sushi. LA is a sushi town. I eat a lot of sushi (just take a look at…

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Shameless

April 14, 2011 | 3 Comments

Shameless is Showtime’s latest entry in the “edgy comedy” category, a slot they’re fond of (Weeds, Dexter). In any case, Shameless is an American remake of a British show, and centers around a working class Chicago family with an extraordinarily bad and alcoholic father named Frank (William H. Macy) and a bevy of often delinquent children and associated hangers on.

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Pecorino – No Sheep is Safe

April 13, 2011 | 3 Comments

Pecorino stands out as slightly different among Brentwood Italians due to its focus on the food of Abruzzo.

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Back to the Future Part III

April 12, 2011 | 2 Comments

Really this is barely a time travel movie. Basically Marty just pops back to 1885 to save Doc from being shot by Biff’s great-grandfather (again played by the same actor). The DeLorean has run out of gas… in 1885, so they have to figure out how to get it up to 88 miles an hour.

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JiRaffe is no Joke

April 11, 2011 | 1 Comments

Restaurant: JiRaffe [1, 2] Location: 502 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401. 310.917.6671 Date: April 1, 2011 Cuisine: French American Rating: Santa Monica Classic   To me, it seems JiRaffe has been here forever. It opened in 1996, and to have made it…

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Back to the Future Part II

April 10, 2011 | 3 Comments

Following up on such a gem of a movie as 1985’s Back to the Future (my review here) must have been a daunting task. And it occasioned part II and part III being filmed together, and released only 6 months apart. As far as I know this was the first time this kind of joint production was ever done.

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Totoraku – Secret Beef!

April 9, 2011 | 4 Comments

Restaurant: Totoraku [1, 2, 3] Location: 10610 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064. Date: April 7, 2011 Cuisine: Japanese Yakiniku Rating: Best beef in town! Six or seven years ago my friend and then-boss Shuhei Yoshida took me for the first…

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Call For Feedback

April 8, 2011 | 0 Comments

As a writer, feedback can be essential to the process. You don’t necessarily want to spend months writing the whole novel draft to find out the voice sucks, or that your plot is boring. I’m a frantic high energy writer (I…

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Making Game of Thrones

April 7, 2011 | 0 Comments

HBO has posted a new 25 minute Making of Game of Thrones video which is really good. CLICK here for my review of Episode 1 of the upcoming series, or HERE for more videos about the series.

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Back to the Future

April 7, 2011 | 4 Comments

Because this is a few years before Top Gun would precipitate the precipitous marketing-driven decline of filmmaking, BTTF is simultaneously incredibly commercial and incredibly good. This script, by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, is tight tight tight. I can only imagine how many passes it underwent because there is not one line out of place. You all know the story…

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All Your Base Are Belong to Us

April 6, 2011 | 0 Comments

This new addition to the field of video game histories is a whirlwind tour of the medium from the 70s blips and blobs to the Facebook games of today, with everything in the middle included. Goldberg has wisely chosen to snapshot pivotal stories. He seizes on some of the most important games, and even more importantly, the zany cast of creatives who made them.

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The Sure Thing

April 5, 2011 | 2 Comments

26 years really doesn’t show on this film. Sure the DVD transfer is a bit dated, and there are little 80s stylistic moments, particularly out in california, and it’s a tad goofier than movies tend to be now — but this is Rob Reiner in his good period.

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