Ever wanted to know the difference between a latte and a cappuccino?

Check out this great illustrated guide.

I have to agree with Jason Calacanis’ observations about Pinkberry. They are getting closer and closer. For those of you who don’t know, Pinkberry is a natural frozen yogurt shop that is all the rage in L.A. right now.

Our closest Pinkberries is on Melrose, probably about a mile away. Recently another yogurt shop, very similar to PinkBerry, Cantaloop, opened up about a quarter of a mile from our place. Now they are building a new Pinkberry a few hundred feet down the street from our place. I expect one in our lobby early next year.

We have been to both PinkBerry and Cantaloop a few times, and have enjoyed it. And we like to think they are fairly guilt-free too (not that I’ve dared to look at the nutritional information yet, we’ll just take for granted that it’s healthy). Now that one is opening so close, I’m sure we’ll be having more fro-yo in the future.

It looks like there is definitely a new frozen yogurt invasion going on. Can’t anyone remember what happened to all those TCBYs that opened up in the nineties?

In early October we ate at the Wynn Buffet. I started this posting but never finished it. Here it is anyway, just basically a list of what we had:

Crab Legs and Clarified Butter, Heirloom Tomato Salad, Shrimp Cocktail, Tofu & Veggie Salad, Tofu and Spinach, Tuna Ceviche, Smoked Whitefish, Cheeses, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Aloo Gobi, Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Seafood, Pizza

Sushi, Hawaiian Seafood Medley

Desserts: Pecan Pie (sugar-free), Carrot Cake, Cookies,

Lemon Bars, Eclair, Creme Brulee, Strawberry Tart

$31.95 + Tax

October 5th, 2005

This is a hilarious account of two people who had an Iron Chef battle in a Souplantation. (For those of you who don’t know, Souplantation is an all you can eat salad and soup restaurant.)

Iron Chef: Souplantation

Found via: la.foodblogging

I consider myself a little bit of a monkey, so it’s quite a shock that I’ve been peeling bananas from the wrong end all my life.

It seems monkeys peel bananas by pinching the non-stem end. I don’t have any bananas to test this on, but can’t wait to try out this technique.

The Los Angeles County Environmental Health Restaurant Rating site is a must visit site for an L.A. area diners. Here you can find out what inspection score any restaurant in the county got. L.A. rates restaurants on a 100 point score with ‘A’ being 90-100 , ‘B’ is 80-89, and ‘C’ is 70-79. We never go to any restaurant that didn’t get an ‘A’.

We went to Locanda Veneta for Michele’s birthday.

The restaurant was small and dimly lit, which made it romantic, but the tables were a little too close together for my liking.

The wine list had a half decent number of wines on it, but was on the pricey side. We had a bottle of the Concannon Petite Syrah for $52.

Appetizer was Melanzana alla Parmiggiana (grilled eggplant stuffed with mozzarella in a tomato basil sauce, baked “au gratin”) and Burrata Caprese (Burrata Cheese and tomatoes, served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar). The eggplant was good, but was overshadowed by the excellent Burrata. We will definitely be ordering that one again when we go back.

For main course I had a special: gnocchi with black cabbage and ricotta in a white bean sauce. The original white bean sauce had bacon in it, so I had them substitute it for another white bean sauce that they had. The gnocchi was good, but not great; I think I am still spoiled by the Gnocchi we had in Venice last year.

Michele was tempted by a special that night, a crab risotto with pomegranate seeds, but went with a regular menu item, the homemade black ravioli filled with fresh lobster served in a creamy saffron sauce. It was very good and Michele was very happy she ordered it.

Dessert was the Il “ Trio” Locanda: vanilla crème custard with caramel sauce, chocolate custard with fresh raspberry, and Panna Cotta with a fresh raspberry sauce. All three were very good and it was a great desert to split.

The service was good. The waiters and bus boys came with everything fairly quickly and cleared things well, but they never we needed to refill our wine glasses ourselves.

Rating
Food: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 7/10

Locanda Veneta
8638 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 274-1893

We buy heirloom tomatoes every now and then, especially when they are on sale. Rock n’ Roll Ralph’s usually has them on for $5.99/lb but yesterday they were only $3.39/lb, which was cheaper then the regular tomatoes, so of course we bought some. If you have never tried heirloom tomatoes before, you should. They really taste like real tomatoes instead of those mushy tasteless things that pass for tomatoes these days.

In case you are wondering, heirloom tomatoes are here is a good introduction.

Cheebo has sandwiches, pizza, salad and other items available to eat at the restaurant, to go, or delivery.

Vegetarian Choices

Sandwiches Vegan Veggiewich(assorted veggies), Eggwich (egg salad), Capresewich (mozzarella, tomato, basil, avacado, olive tapenade, burrata), Garden Veggie Burger, Three Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato pressed sandwich.

Pizza They offer a large choice of veggies, herbs and other vegetarian toppings for their pizzas.

Salads Mixed Green, Mesquite Grilled Vegetable, Caesar, Greek, Artichoke and Arrugula, Living Salad, Baked Goat Cheese Salad, Gorgonzola Salad.

Other Items They always have a Vegan soup of the Day, and also have some pastas and sides to choose from.

Overall, I think Cheebo does a good job providing a good variety of vegetarian options. Even Vegans have several selection to choose from.

Vegetarian Rating: 4 out of 5

Cheebo
7533 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323)850-7070

Today, October 1st, is World Vegetarian Day (PDF document here,) which kicks of Vegetarian Awareness Month.

I will be trying to post a lot of vegetarian entries on this blog in October. I am also introducing a new category on this blog, Hollywood Restaurant Vegetarian Rating. I will be describing the vegetarian options at restaurants that I go to in Hollywood.

Make sure you have a vegetarian dinner tonight!