Archive for July 2014

Every Question About Choco Chicken, Answered

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When the first news of Choco Chicken started leaking out on the interwebs I have to admit I was instantly excited.  Not because chocolate covered fried chicken sounds good to me (it doesn’t), but because I’ve got a ton of respect for Umami Burger and 800 Degrees. They might not serve up your favorite burger or pizza in the city, but both chains are genius ideas and both taste great for what they are. It helps, of course, that I love the mix of sweet and salty.  And I knew in my heart of artery clogged hearts that the concept of a chocolate fried chicken would be safe in the hands of whoever came up with those other two ideas.

Fast forward to now.  Chocochicken is now open in Downtown L.A. and I can confirm that the chicken is pretty much everything I imagined it would be. (Did I mention that I knew it was going to be good?) The restaurant itself?  Well, that’s a different story.  And it seems like a lot of people still have questions they need answered before they’re willing to fork over the cash for whatever it is that chocochicken is.

So, for those of you who haven’t taken the dive yet (or those of you who have and are still confused) here is every question you had about Chocochicken, answered.

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Behold! The Panda Express Innovation Kitchen Burrito…

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If you haven’t heard, Pasadena is now home to the Panda Express Innovation Kitchen, an open to the public incubator that is serving the one thing Asian wrap loving fatties have always dreamed of: a Panda Express burrito. There are also salads and rice bowls (ala Chipotle’s Shophouse) but you’re not going to bother with that. What you are going to bother with is a scallion dotted mooshu pancake wrapped around orange chicken, rice, chow mein and whatever else you see fit to stuff in there.

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You’re going to take a bite, shed a tear, and then get to work on figuring out how we can convince Panda Express to not only serve these at every one of their locations, but also offer the option of having them deep fried. (Orange Chicken egg roll chimichanga FTW!)

Want to read more? I wrote about it for Thrillist this week>>

4 is the Magic Number at K-Town’s The Corner Place

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No amount of heat will get me to completely give up ramen or pho or kalguksoo, but as the temperature goes up in the summer it certainly causes my lunchtime brain to dream of cooler bowls of noodle goodness. These 6 soup-less noodle bowls, like the hiyashi chuka at Santouka, make for some great heat wave lunching.  And if you have time to make the drive down to Torrance, you can’t do better than the cold soba from Ichimiann Bamboo Garden. But if you’re craving Korean food, you pretty much have only two options: a bowl of naengmyun from one of the many places in K-Town that serves the ice cold tangy noodle dish, or The Corner Place.

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