Eat and Be Eaten

A list of dining on my agenda [in no particular order]:

Orange County

1. Delicias de Mexico, ice creams in Garden Grove
   
2. Stricklands, Irvine
3. Kasen, Fountain Valley
4. Marche Moderne, Costa Mesa
5. Kogami, Tustin
6. Irie Jamaican Restaurant, Cypress
7. Regina's, Garden Grove
8. I Love Bagels, Laguna Nigel
9. Van Hanh Vegetarian, Westminster
10. Jamillah Garden, Islamic-Chinese in Tustin

Los Angeles

1. Papillon, Filipino vegetarian in El Segundo
2. Vito's Pizza, margherita
   
3. Joe's Restaurant, prix-fixe, 3-course lunch in Venice
4. Gaja Moc, Lomita
5. Osteria Mozza, Hollywood
   
6. Hatfield’s, WeHo
7. Fugetsu-do, mochi
8. 3 Square Cafe, bagel burgers
9. Creme de la Crepe, Hermosa Beach
   
10. Opus, spontaneous tasting menu
11. Spoon House, Gardena
12. Bistro Beaux, Torrance
13. Bin 8945, tapas
14. Romanov, Studio City
15. Gorikee, Woodland Hills
16. Josie, Santa Monica
17. Scoops, Hollywood
18. Cantaloop, WeHo
19. Wat Thai, Hollywood
20. Jin Patisserie, Venice Beach
21. Clementine, Thursday afternoon tea
22. Wien Konditorei Und Cafe, Korean pastries
23. Coccole - Laboratorio del Gusto, Redondo Beach
24. Enerva, Mexican desserts in Bell
    
25. Class 302, Rowland Heights
26. Rosine's Mediterranean Cafe, Anaheim

Bay Area

1. Salt House, SOMA
2. Bistro Luneta, San Mateo
3. Dosa, Mission
   
4. Mosaic, Forestville
5. Gary Danko, Embarcadero
6. The French Laundry, Yountville
7. Raja, Indian naan pizza
8. Meadowood, St. Helena
9. Piccino, SOMA
10. Range, Mission
    

Out-of-Town

1. Alinea, Chicago
2. Charlie Trotter, Chicago
3. Green Zebra, Chicago
   
4. WD-50, NYC
5. El Bulli, Spain
6. Pierre Herme macaroons, Paris
7. Frontera Grill, Chicago
8. Vetri, Philadelphia
9. Ichiza, Las Vegas

Pardon my dust

I have been contemplating keeping a separate food blog for some time now, but other endeavors have always gotten in the way. Last year, it was my website facelift and more recently, it has been maintaining my status as a Yelp Elite. But the more I thought about it, the less inclined I felt to do it. Switching over to my Blogger account, html overrides, templates, tags, moving my reviews [not to mention the broken "m" key on my keyboard]...hadn't I been through all this already? When will I ever learn to stop diving into my infatuations head first?

And then it hit me while we were having dinner last night. I had made some sort of gluttonous move at the dinner table when my SO remarked that hell for me would be a bowl of soup from The French Laundry and a pair of chopsticks for hands. The catch was that the bowl would be glued down to the table and I would spend my days futilely jabbing away at the liquid mess without ever managing to even taste a single drop.

My love affair with food has always been more than a passing flirtation--it is a passion.

As a matter of coincidence [or not], I have been up since 3am on account of my rumbling tummy. Since I couldn't get back to sleep, I started browsing templates for ideas and before I knew it, the sun had risen and I had gone through 5,000 blog skins without success. I eventually managed to find one by guenhwyvar that was acceptable for tweaking and have been playing with it for the last 14 hours (aesthetics are just as important as content). Consequently, I will be spending the next few days backdating reviews from Yelp and working out the kinks with my blogger.

So please, pardon my dust.