The BruinRyan Archives

MLK Winter Wineland Weekend 2008

2008-01-21T00:32:00.000-08:00

What's better than getting together with old friends, drinking wine, eating food, and reminiscing about old times? Not much. Throw in a sweet Sonoma house and some random games and you have a great weekend.

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – The Crepe Escape

2007-12-14T00:44:00.000-08:00

(Originally posted on LAist on December 14)

After a five-week hiatus, LAist is back to taking you on its weekly trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line.

I’ve always had a certain fascination with crepes. Not sure exactly why, perhaps it’s the simple elegance that a crepe has, its delicate buckwheat consistency and taste that can be deliciously served with virtually any kind of filling, whether sweet or savory. All I know is that when I pass a crepe stand or shop, I almost immediately get suckered into buying one, kinda like that dreaded hot dog and onion stand outside of ball games.

La Galette Creperie in San Clemente not only serves delectable crepes, but gives you the added bonus of being a wonderful little sidewalk cafe (which if you’ve read my other reviews, you know I’m a big fan of). It’s situated immediately adjacent to San Clemente Pier, so you can sit out in front and sip your coffee while watching surfers come in from their morning runs and people walking their dogs. It also has about ten tables of inside seating.

The restaurant is essentially a breakfast/lunch spot. The menu primarily consists of crepes, divided between sweet and savory, although different types of egg scrambles are also offered. However, unlike a crepe stand, La Galette Creperie uses fresh, gourmet ingredients to create tantalizing combinations. For example, on the savory side, fillings include ham, swiss cheese, and béchamel sauce (Croque Monsieur); smoked salmon with crème fraiche and red onion (Sunday Brunch); and chicken with apples, gorgonzola cheese, and hazelnut dressing (Chicken Fuji). The sweet side of the menu has favorites like Nutella and Dulce de Leche, but also inventive treats like the Campfire (chocolate, marshmallow cream, and crumbled graham crackers) and Strawberry Shortcake (homemade shortcake, strawberries, and vanilla sauce).

When I made my trip, I was a little overwhelmed with all of the options. I settled on the Chicken Apple Sausage Scramble crepe, which was filled with the sausage, as well as scrambled eggs, rosemary potatoes, sautéed onions, and Monterey Jack cheese, and topped with a white sauce. The filling was pretty generous so that it felt like I was getting a scramble that just happened to be surrounded by a crepe, as opposed to being predominately crepe without much on the inside. The eggs were light and fluffy, while the sausage added plenty of flavor but not a lot of density. On the flip side, the sauce added an appropriate level of richness with the cheese, giving the dish a nice balance: robust and filling, but not too heavy.

In fact, it was light enough that I couldn’t resist ordering up a second crepe, this time a dessert crepe to cleanse the palate. My server had already brought out the check, but I figured I had nowhere to be and more room in my stomach to eat. And I wasn’t disappointed. I opted for the Berries and Cream crepe, a slightly less sweet option so I could justify to myself that I ate fruit with the meal. It was a relatively simple crepe, full of fresh strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries alongside a healthy portion of whipped cream. It was an amazing example of how good food can be when you just let the natural flavors speak for themselves, rather than needlessly complicating a dish by introducing more complex ingredients. The sweetness and slight tartness of the berries, mixed with the cream and the texture of the crepe was spot on.

The food alone makes La Galette Creperie worth a visit, but it’s the idyllic setting that makes it truly memorable. San Clemente is known for being roughly equidistant between Los Angeles and San Diego, which means it’s way out of the way for most people. But it’s also known as one of the last true beach communities in Southern California, personified by laid-back lifestyles and the absence of significant commercial development. Each of the beaches is semi-secluded, allowing for small shops and fewer visitors. As such, soaking in the sea breeze while chowing down on some great crepes truly gives one a feeling of escape. If only life could always be this simple.

La Galette Creperie
612 Ave. Victoria, Suite E
San Clemente, CA 92672

Photos from La Galette Creperie's website, since my camera crapped out on me

Breaking News: Baseball is Full of Effing Cheaters

2007-12-13T00:43:00.000-08:00

(Originally posted on LAist on December 13)

Former Senate Majority Leader (and current Boston Red Sox director) George Mitchell just announced the results of his 20-month, $20 million investigation into allegations of widespread steroid usage in baseball. The long-awaited, 409-page Mitchell Report (document here) identifies more than 80 current and former players as being linked to using performance-enhancing drugs. While the report casts blame on the lack of institutional control within baseball as much as the players themselves that cheated, what everyone cares about are the names.

Let the public humiliation ensue.

The list includes several current and former stars, such as all-time great Roger Clemens (no surprise, given his career arc), Andy Pettitte, and former beloved Dodger Eric “Game Over” Gagne. Others retired stars include the less-beloved former Dodger Kevin Brown (six-time all star), ex-Angel Mo Vaughn (1995 MVP), and David Justice.

Some have been previously implicated, like 2002 MVP Miguel Tejada, and of course, the ~~giant forehead~~ man who was the catalyst for the investigation after his alleged steroid usage was detailed in the controversial book Game of Shadows, all-time home run champ* Barry* Bonds*.

Several current and former Dodgers and Angels are mentioned. The full list is as follows:

Dodgers (years with the team in parenthesis): Eric Gagne (1999-2006), Paul LoDuca (1998-2004), Kevin Brown (1999-2003), Todd Hundley (1999-2000, 2003), Jeff Williams (1999-2002), Matt Herges (1999-2001), Chris Donnels (2000-2001), Phil Hiatt (2001), Ismael Valdez (1994-1999, 2000), F.P. Santangelo (2000), Adam Riggs (1997), Todd Williams (1995)

Angels: Gary Matthews, Jr. (2007-current), Brendan Donnelly (2002-2006), Paul Byrd (2005), Jason Christiansen (2005), Troy Glaus (1998-2004), Adam Riggs (2003-2004), Jose Guillen (2004), Scott Schoeneweis (1999-2003), Bart Miadich (2001, 2003), Mo Vaughn (1999-2001), Ismael Valdez (2001), Glenallen Hill (2001), Kent Mercker (2000), Jason Grimsley (1996)

Commissioner Bud Selig will address the report at a press conference beginning at 1:30 pm PT when he will be undoubtedly besieged by questions over potential punishments for the implicated players and the validity of any of the statistics accumulated during this “Steroid Era.”

What will be interesting to see is the reaction from fans, which widely acknowledge the prevalence of usage of these illegal substances during the past fifteen years, but continue to pay big money to watch their heroes hit 500 foot bombs and throw 100 MPH fastballs. Because while baseball as a sport places so much prestige on records and statistics that are permanently altered because of the scandal, its primary function is to provide entertainment. As such, the administrators of baseball, led by Selig, which ignored the problem to generate better business are just as worthy of scorn as these players that will forever be branded as cheaters.

Photos from AP

Ain’t No Party Like an OC Party

2007-12-12T00:40:00.000-08:00

(Originally posted on LAist on December 12)

During the go-go, greed is good ‘80s, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and host Robin Leach became the symbol of American opulence. It was hard not to aspire for 'champagne wishes and caviar dreams.' Of course these days, there are countless shows featuring the upper crust flaunting their wealth. And like a car wreck, we wretch at the sight of such blatant materialism while secretly keeping our eyes glued to the TV set.

So given our fascination with the uber-rich and our voyeuristic tendencies, it’s no surprise that Lifetime is now jumping on the bandwagon and launching another reality show celebrating such extravagance. Top This Party: Orange County, premiering on January 4, follows in the footsteps of Laguna Beach and Newport Harbor recognizing our fine neighbors to the south (or at least that upper 1%). Part Desperate Housewives of Orange County, part My Super Sweet 16, it will follow party planner Brian Dobbin around as he puts together over-the-top fiestas for local residents ranging in cost from $100,000-$250,000.

According to the hostess featured in the pilot episode, “the show's premise essentially boils down to showing "how we're just so rich we can spend huge amounts of money.”

Um, right.

No word on whether residents in Santa Ana, Garden Grove, or any other place in OC not named Newport Beach will be featured on the show.

And yes, I will be watching Lifetime on January 4.

Flickr photo by sml!

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – A “Mil” from the Heart

2007-11-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

(Originally posted on LAist on November 9)

Here in LA, we are blessed with embarrassing riches when it comes to Latin American food. Just about every country is represented by at least a couple of places that truly embody the cuisine and spirit of the local culture. Venezuela is no different. While authentic Venezuelan restaurants are sparse in the Southland, they do exist. Coupa Café in Beverly Hills offers the upscale option, with fresh-brewed coffee, high-end food items, and some traditional dishes. But down in Santa Ana, Mil Jugos brings Venezuelan cuisine to the everyman.

Mil Jugos is a tiny shop in downtown Santa Ana, neighboring the Civic Center and Artists Village. Owned and operated by a Venezuelan mother-daughter tandem, the café contains only five tables but packs the soul of a nation within its walls. With brightly colored walls, scores of pictures of friends and family, and little wall ornaments depicting various incarnations of homes, Mil Jugos feels like one is taking a glimpse into the lives of its proprietors.

While Mil Jugos serves conventional sandwiches and salads, the real attraction are the two Venezuelan specialties on the menu: cachapas and arepas. Cachapas are sweet corn pancakes topped with various items typically served at breakfast or as appetizers. The café presents toppings like queso blanco, pork, seasoned beef, and ham. Because it was later in the day when I made my trip, I opted for the arepas. Arepas are more like a Venezuelan sandwich, with grilled corn bread surrounding hearty fillings. Mil Jugos provides numerous combinations of hot seasoned meats and cheeses to satisfy the palate. Slightly smaller than an In-N-Out hamburger, the arepas aren’t going to be tummystuffers individually. Which simply means you can make your own variety pack to sample different fillings. I went light and only got two: the pabellon and the pollo.

The first thing you’ll notice after you order at the counter is that it takes them a long time to make the arepas. Those of us used to our fast-food lives might be annoyed, but to me it just meant that I was getting something freshly prepared. Indeed, when my arepas were brought out to me, they were steaming. My first bite gave me the warmth and density of the masa-based bread, and the savoriness of the pollo. Yum! The pollo arepa was a combination of shredded chicken, cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and onions. All of the seasoning livened up the filling, though it was not spicy – I added some of the cool green chili sauce to give it extra bite. The pabellon was a mixture of carne desmechada (shredded beef cooked with similar ingredients as the pollo), black beans, and white cheese. This filling offered more of a flavor contrast between the slightly sour cheese and the meat and beans. Both were tasty, though I think my preference was for the pollo.

As anyone who who has studied elementary Spanish knows, mil jugos means a thousand juices. Accordingly, the restaurant also offers a lengthy list of nearly 25 fresh juices. Familiar fruits that are not necessarily typically consumed as juices include banana, pear, peach, and strawberry. Also available are numerous native selections such as guanabana, chicha, and tamarindo. To accompany my arepas, I had a large cup of tizana, a common Venezuelan drink, which was comprised of passion fruit juice mixed with several scoops of chopped green apples, cantaloupe, grapes, and pineapple.

Mil Jugos primarily serves the workday lunch set, closing on Sundays, and only opening from 10 to 5 during the week (opening at 10:30 on Saturdays). With arepas ranging from $3-$4 and cachapas priced at $5-$6, you’ll need to spend a little bit more to get a full meal than at a typical American café. But the meal you’re getting will be anything but typical.

Mil Jugos
318 W. 5th St.
Santa Ana, CA 92701

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Darling I Love You But Give Me Park Ave.

2007-11-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on November 2)

Saying the name ‘Park Avenue’ evokes images of wealth, of tony living, of elegance and class (or of crappy Buicks if you’re into cars). Kinda like Rodeo Drive. It’s the antithesis of the working class, the regular everyday lifestyle that most of us experience. Which makes this week’s restaurant strangely appropriate, since Park Ave. in Stanton delivers a regal dining experience for a working class crowd.

My dad likes to joke about the perception that Laguna Beach or Newport Harbor is somehow representative of “the real Orange County,” and that someone looking to experience real “real Orange County” should go visit Stanton. Like most communities in north Orange County, Stanton is firmly middle class, with a diverse population and a significantly lower amount of plastic and silicon per capita than certain other “real” neighborhoods. Thus, it is surprising to find a place like Park Ave. within the Stanton city limits since the whole theme of the restaurant harkens back to upper-class 1950s living, a stark contrast to the nudie bar located a block away.

Picture this: a dimly lit dining room, with a mahogany wood base design and retro fabric adorning the seats and curtains; an elegant bar with old Rat Pack standards playing in the background; an all-black clad wait staff offering up seasonal selections from the menu; a googie-style logo displayed in the neon roadsign all the way down to the embossing in the faux-gator leather billholder. From what I could see, every last detail was covered to convey the theme.

That is, except for the food. Although the restaurant motif is pure 1950s, the food has a decidedly 21st century feel to it. Park Ave. and executive chef David Slay offer a variety of steaks, chops, and seafood with a modern twist (think of the Elks Lodge challenge from Top Chef 3). My dining companions and I interrogated our server, trying to cover as much ground as possible, but she was a good sport, leading us to some of her favorites on the menu. Undoubtedly, in the back of her mind she thought we were a little eccentric, a la the Finer Things Club in last night’s The Office episode.

We started our meal by sampling both the spinach salad and the creamy tomato soup. The spinach salad, tossed tableside, mixed in bacon and cheese and a warm apple cider-based vinaigrette, which provided both the sweet and sour to the dish. Although the warmth of the dressing wasn’t universally approved of, I liked how it gave my belly a little heat prior to the main course while still maintaining the lightness that a salad is intended to bring. The soup, served in a fun Park Ave. mug, was a slightly chunky mix of tomatoes, cream, cheese, and minced onions. The temperature was perfect, hot enough to taste all of the commingling flavors but cool enough that it didn’t burn the tongue. It was great on its own, but it could have easily made an excellent sauce for a lobster ravioli dish as well.

For my main dish, I ordered the antelope medallions. I will almost always order a game dish if I see it on a menu, as I love the sharper taste of the meat. The antelope was served with wild rice and spaghetti squash. I found my meat to be tasty but slightly overcooked (I asked for medium rare, but it came out closer to medium than rare) which, when coupled with the toughness of the meat, made it more firm than desired. However, the port wine sauce that accompanied the antelope was terrific, bringing a slight sweetness that accentuated the flavor of the meat. The rice and squash made nice accompaniments that helped complement the antelope from both a flavor profile and a textural contrast standpoint, not to mention adding color to the plate.

My food buddies ordered the filet mignon medallions and the stuffed chicken. The filet was a great cut of meat, super tender and flavorful. The meat was topped with a shiitake mushroom sauce that I thought overpowered the flavor of the meat slightly, and served with roasted potatoes. If I were to concoct the perfect dish, I would have mixed the port wine sauce with the filet mignon steak. That would have been spectacular. Meanwhile, the stuffed chicken was a boneless chicken filled with spinach and whipped potatoes. The dish was extremely hearty (my friend didn’t even finish half of it), but the flavors of each of the components remained intact. The chicken stayed moist despite the ingredients stuffed inside, allowing the natural juices to come out with each bite.

Park Ave. also has a healthy dessert menu, featuring homemade ice cream and sundaes. We opted to split a warm berry crumble and substituted out the usual vanilla ice cream for peanut butter ice cream. The combination of the berry sauce and peanut butter ice cream definitely made the dessert taste like peanut butter and jelly (and if you don’t like PB&J, you need to get yourself checked out). I particularly liked the inclusion of cranberries, in addition to the blueberries and raspberries that I’m accustomed to seeing in a mixed berry dessert, with their acidic taste providing some tartness against the rest of the sweet items. The crumble was a chewy, sugary topping that added much needed thickness. Other favorites from our server included the molten chocolate cake and the bread pudding.

Ordinarily, I’m accustomed to paying a hefty tab for a solid three-course meal such as this one, particularly given the solid service and general ambience. But we were able to get out for under $35/head, tax and tip included. The reasonable prices make Park Ave. a very accessible gourmet dining experience; in short, an upper-class meal at middle-class prices.

Park Ave.
11200 Beach Blvd.
Stanton, CA 90680

All photos by Amy Yang, as well as the reminder of the Green Acres theme song for the title of this post

My Obituary for UCLA Football

2007-10-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 29)

Strangely, I’m OK with it.

I mean, I’m NOT OK with it. I’m full of fury, anguish, and despair. But more than that, I feel resignation. I’m tired. And I’ve come to terms with all of it.

UCLA football is dead to me.

It’s not that I’m disowning the program. I’m still gonna support the team; my blood will always run Bruin blue. It’s just that I’m no longer going to pour myself into the team like I have been these past few years. I’m moving on with my life. I can finally accept that the program - under the leadership of Karl Dorrell - has been buried. I have emerged from the five stages of grief, and now I’m at peace.

This isn’t the first time my relationship with UCLA football has died. During the last couple of games of the Bob Toledo era, I made a similar vow. Fortunately, the administration was on the same page and got rid of him soon after. Unfortunately, it replaced him with Dorrell.

I forced myself to start fresh, let our relationship be reborn, even though I was skeptical about whether the program was alive once again. Over the course of Dorrell’s five-year tenure, I’ve seen all the telltale signs that suggested this death was imminent; I just chose to hold on to some slivers of hope that the team provided every so often by winning a game it wasn’t supposed to. Even as I’ve been calling for his dismissal for the last several weeks, I still went out and gave my all as a fan.

But now, I, like many of my counterparts in Bruin Nation, can acknowledge with absolute certainty that our spirit has been permanently crushed (well, at least until a new coach revives it); that whatever life, momentum, hope, optimism, and promise that survived the losses to Utah and Notre Dame, and was revived by the win over Cal, was extinguished by this humiliating loss to Washington St.

At this point, I’ve got nothing more to say. I’ve vented as much as I possibly can about the frustrations over the team’s lack of toughness (see 11/9/06 after Cal), lack of effort (see 9/17/07 after Utah), and lack of preparation (see 10/8/07 after Notre Dame). Others Bruin faithful are carrying the torch, like the boys at DumpDorrell.com who are fundraising to raise up a billboard to publicly petition to AD Dan Guerrero for Dorrell’s dismissal, or the always vocal Bruins Nation, or the loyal cranks on Bruin Report Online. Even SI’s Stewart Mandel is calling UCLA the worst coached team in America. But I’ve got no more fuel to add to the fire. Any more negativity out of my mouth is just going to affect my health and make me say something I’ll regret.

Now it’s not a given that Dorrell is going to be let go; he still has four games, three against top-15 level teams, to continue the deception that the program is headed in the right direction by pulling off some more miraculous upset wins. Honestly, if Guerrero isn’t convinced that Dorrell is in over his head, I’m not sure what else needs to happen, short of a winless season. Anyone with a pair of functioning eyes can see that. And if you do truly believe Dorrell’s the answer, let me introduce to my good friend the Tooth Fairy.

So with these remaining four games, or possibly even more if the Bruins cowboy up and make a bowl and/or manage to salvage Dorrell’s job, I’m looking forward to being just a casual fan. I won’t have to pull my hair out over a punchless West Coast offense unable to complete even simple pass plays. I won’t have to gnash my teeth seeing another spread offense cut apart the “vaunted” Bruin defense. Best of all, I’ll be able to tune out all of the lame clichéd excuses of problems with execution, focus, intensity, and injury. I’ll get to use Saturday nights to relax with a glass of wine instead of stewing with my bottle(s) of hard liquor. Already I feel my blood pressure lowering. As much as I’ll miss UCLA football, I know I’m so much better off without it right now. And I’m sure I’ll be more refreshed when the program is rejuvenated with a new coaching staff.

Whatever does happen, I hope that things are handled with class. ‘Cause even though Karl may be dead to me now, he’s still a Bruin that exudes integrity, and all Bruins deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Even if they can’t coach their way out of a paper bag.

It’s been one hell of a ride. But this is where I get off.

AP Photo by Dean Hare

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Grubbing Before the Rooster Crows

2007-10-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 26)

This month, LAist has brought you daily coverage of some of LA’s finest late night dining spots from all over the Southland. So we’d be remiss if we didn’t throw in at least one spot from OC.

Some of you readers that have probably never set foot down in the giant suburbia known as Orange County might be surprised to learn that there is actually a bar scene and late night crowd. True, you have to look a little harder to find it, but it does exist. I swear.

One of these little hamlets of nightlife activity exists in Costa Mesa. While it appears to the naked eye that Baker St. seems abandoned after about 9 pm, there are actually a number of bars and clubs within a half-mile radius of the 73 Freeway, primarily located off the main drag in strip malls and industrial centers. Though hidden, these nightspots range from divey bars to chic lounges. And Rooster Café is the restaurant that services all of these hipsters after they’ve had their fill of carousing.

Rooster Café was actually opened by the owner of Kitsch Bar (off Baker/Bear) several months ago, replacing a popular neighborhood ramen shop. It’s primarily a brunch spot, opened daily from 7 am to 3 pm, but it is perfectly tailored to meet the needs of the late night crowd as well, re-opening its doors from 10 pm to 3 am on Friday and Saturday nights. It brings in a rowdy crowd from the Tin Lizzie Saloon, a gay bar next door, as well as pedestrians from the other neighborhood joints that are too sloshed to drive home. Offering counter service and holding about ten tables, the cafe attracts plenty of loiterers content to chat with some of their new best friends. The café has a minimalist décor, with red walls and furniture that looks more IKEA than Pottery Barn. Alternative music blasts from the speakers and the help is mostly tatted up or wearing some hipster threads.

The menu at Rooster café is simple, designed for fast and easy preparation of orders at the grill in the kitchen. The breakfast portion of the menu features various egg scrambles, French toast, and breakfast burritos, all for four to five dollars, as well as bowls of cereal (how yummy is a bowl of Cap’n Crunch after you’ve been drinking for five hours?). The lunch menu offers up different cold (BLT, tuna) and warm (meatball, grilled veggie) sandwiches ranging from five to seven dollars. And for those patrons that haven’t gotten their fill of liquor, bottled imports like Newcastle and Amstel are available, not to mention mimosas.

The one thing that distinguishes Rooster Café from a typical greasy spoon is the quality of the food. The ingredients are actually fresh, bringing an element of gourmet, not like the food was just thrown in a microwave or cooked in a deep fryer. The French dip is a popular example of this. Thinly sliced cuts of roast beef are served with sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions, and melted swiss cheese, all piled into a French roll, thus making it as much a cheesesteak as it is a French dip. But served piping hot with standard au jus on the side, it’s actually a really good sandwich, not just a really good late-night sandwich (big difference). In other words, sober people will appreciate the food as much as a drunk. The sandwich comes out literally steaming because of the meat, and the onions and mushrooms give it plenty of extra flavor, with the fresh roll providing the appropriate amount of crunch to absorb the au jus without getting soggy.

The breakfast burrito is also a tasty dish that provides the comfort of post-bar finger food without compromising the quality of the food. Anyone who eats at roach coaches knows about the legend of roach coach breakfast burritos. Warm, greasy, so good going down, not so good coming out. The Rooster Café breakfast burrito is just as good going down, not as greasy, and does not result in the same degree of aftershocks. The burritos are thick, a big flour tortilla filled with fluffy scrambled eggs, hash browned potatoes, melted cheddar cheese, bacon or Portuguese sausage, with a side of fresh pico de gallo. The potatoes are not overly fried, helping to reduce the oiliness that weighs roach coach burritos down. The amount of meat and cheese is moderated to bring great flavor without dominating the dish and the lightness of the eggs and the coolness of the pico de gallo really lift the burrito. In effect, you get the benefit of feeling like you’re eating greasy food to absorb the alcohol without it being too greasy (relatively speaking).

When you’re on the lookout for a little nightcap, and you have that bug, any food will do. But it’s nice to find a place like Rooster Café that is a decent spot to hang out in after the bars have closed, yet offers good food that you may even remember when you wake up in the morning.

Rooster Café
750 St. Clair St.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Bruin Recap - Roaring Back Against the Bears

2007-10-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 22)

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life. And UCLA football under Karl Dorrell.

Two weeks ago, the obituaries for Dorrell’s job were already being written after the Bruins were humiliated by two touchdowns to previously winless Notre Dame. The same Notre Dame that USC just undressed 38-0 this past Saturday. There have been few moments in my time as a Bruin fan that I can remember any coach or team receiving the amount of vitriol that were spouted during the days immediately following the loss. Bruin fans were out for blood.

But if there’s anything we’ve learned about the football program during Dorrell’s tenure, it’s that the team is capable of as many brilliant highs as spectacular lows. It’s this inconsistency which makes it so maddeningly frustrating to support the team. It pains us to see the possibility of what we could be if we lived up to the potential. And it teases us by giving us hope that we’re on the doorstep of finally fulfilling that potential. We experience the exhilaration of watching our team play its game, stand toe-to-toe with a highly-regarded rival, and emerge the victor. We revel in the glory of a hard-fought 30-21 win over #10 Cal, applauding our heroes, yet stand afraid, wanting so desperately to hold on to this feeling but not wanting to put our faith back into this team just to get burned once more. This is the dilemma that faces UCLA fans today.

For now, considering all of the criticism that we’ve bestowed on to the team for its underachievement so far this season, it is only fair to celebrate it for playing a game worthy of the offset ‘C’ that highlights the end zone, signifying the unprecedented 100 team championships that the UCLA athletic program earned this past year. While it was Alterraun Verner’s pick-six when Cal was driving to kick the winning field goal that clinched the game, this was a team effort. The Bruins got contributions from all of the units, even the much-maligned coaching staff. Never mind the fact that Cal was just minutes away from being #1 last week, what showed on the Rose Bowl field was a UCLA team that prepared better and simply outplayed a highly-talented foe.

Once again, the defense led the way, containing an explosive Cal offense that featured Heisman candidate DeSean Jackson. While Jackson still had a big day, the Bruins totally shut down Cal’s running game, including Justin Forsett, who came in leading the conference in rushing. Kevin Brown anchored a strong effort by the defensive line, which controlled the line of scrimmage, allowing linebackers Christian Taylor (who is in recovery after suffering a seizure following a concussion), Reggie Carter, and Kyle Bosworth to come up and attack. Considering the quality of Cal’s receivers, the defensive secondary covered well, and prevented any game-breaking plays with sure tackling. This marked the third straight game that the defense held the opposing team below its season average in yards, with Cal gaining nearly 130 yards fewer than normal.

What made the defense even more effective was the Bruins’ efficiency on offense. The Bruins kept the defense off the field by churning up first downs and burning the clock with a balanced attack (183 yards rushing/190 yards passing). Not surprisingly, the offense was effective with Pat Cowan back under center, despite being hobbled by a torn MCL. For whatever reason, the offense as a whole seems to play better when Cowan is playing QB as opposed to Ben Olson, and I’ll say it again, he should be the starter from here on out if he can stay healthy. Cowan made good decisions and reads, and protected the ball (save for a botched handoff). While his accuracy was unpredictable and his throws to the outside looked like ducks waiting to be picked off, his understanding of the game compensated for his physical shortcomings by putting the ball where it needed to be and avoiding risky plays. The receivers took advantage of Cal’s suspect secondary, getting separation from the DBs for a change giving Cowan opportunities to throw. Brandon Breazell, as he has been all year, was the man, catching balls, running end-arounds, and throwing touchdown passes (more on that later). And Pat’s brother Joe Cowan made several plays in critical situations. The offensive line turned in perhaps its best performance of the season, winning the battle upfront to create running lanes for Kahlil Bell, but also providing solid pass protection, giving Pat more time to throw than the quarterbacks have had in recent weeks. Bell, of course, continued to anchor of the offense. With Chris Markey effectively sidelined with a turf toe injury, Bell wore down the Cal defense, gaining 142 big yards.

The one thing the Bruins have been consistently successful with this year is special teams. Saturday showed exactly how important this aspect of the game is. Kai Forbath, the phenomenal freshman kicker for UCLA, made another three field goals, giving him ten consecutive makes over four games. On the other sideline, Cal kicker Jordan Kay missed his only attempt, giving him five misses in his last seven attempts. Margin of victory? Yep, nine points. Meanwhile, punter Aaron Perez didn’t give Jackson any opportunity to make one of his ridiculous returns like last season.

I’ve ripped on the coaching staff for not getting players ready to play and for highly suspect playcalling, but this week, they earned their money. DeWayne Walker had his defense up for the challenge this week. As Verner said about his interception after the game, he was able to jump Jackson’s out route because he identified what play was coming pre-snap; a great individual play, no doubt, but also attributable to excellent preparation. Walker also made some great halftime adjustments to slow down Cal’s passing attack by featuring more blitz packages to disrupt the timing of QB Nate Longshore and his gimpy ankle. Offensive coordinator Jay Norvell showed a little more imagination this week, running the aforementioned Breazell end-arounds to set up the beautiful end-around pass from Breazell to Dominique Johnson. Norvell dialed up more middle screens as well, capitalizing on Cal’s overaggressive defense, and helping keep UCLA in more manageable third-down situations. It was in direct contrast to the playcalling of Jeff Tedford, the guy whose supposed coaching abilities are lusted after by many Bruin fans. He was extraordinarly conservative, particularly in the second half. I’m used to seeing the run-run-pass offense from UCLA, but to see Cal not getting the ball into the hands of its playmakers was strange. Even though Cal was having some success in third-and-long situations, it made the Bears’ offense entirely predictable, culminating in the pivotal interception when it was the Bruins that were on the ropes. For once, it was the Bruins that were the aggressor, well, relatively speaking.

Which brings us back to the man in charge, Mr. Dorrell. He took his lumps these last two weeks, suffered through countless calls for his dismissal, and used the bye week to circle the wagons and get his team ready to play. Dorrell may not be a lot of things, but he is a fighter. Every time fans are ready to write him off, he somehow gets off the mat and the team responds. He had his share of classic Karl moments, most notably the inexplicable 4th and 1 decision to punt at Cal’s 38 late in the third quarter which elicited thunderous boos from the crowd. It wasn’t enough that he acted like a scared little girl, even though the Bruins were losing and moving the ball effectively, it was also that he wasted a timeout to set up the “try to draw the defense offsides” play. As he said in his post-game press conference, “I didn’t want to make a mistake.” Which is always how he has coached, play not to lose, the attitude that Bruin fans hate. But give the man his due, he sticks to his guns, probably too stubbornly, never changing in his approach, his demeanor, or his attitude, no matter how well or how poorly the team is playing. He is who he is. Although it’s totally fair to ask why his players don’t put forth this kind of effort every and execution week, Dorrell does deserve the credit for getting the Bruins to play well this week. And he did so against a team and a coach that many of the Bruin faithful perceive as having surpassed UCLA as a program.

I don’t really think this win changes anything other than silencing some of the critics for now. The Dorrell-era Bruins have always delivered these moments and gotten fans’ hopes up, only to follow it up with a stinkbomb. So the true test is whether this is the start of a run at the Rose Bowl, or just the one high point of the season before descending back into mediocrity. The next two weeks feature road games against bottom feeders Washington St. and Arizona, games that UCLA on paper has the decided advantage. On paper, the Bruins are tied atop the Pac-10 standings at 4-0. But we all know that games aren’t played on paper. There isn’t a Bruin fan out there who isn’t scared that the team might lose one or both of these games. At the same time, Saturday showed that there’s no reason to believe that the Bruins can’t win the rest of their games as well. We know what history suggests. Thanks to the win over Cal, Dorrell still has his chance to rewrite those history books before the story ends.

AP photos by Kevork Djansezian and Richard Vogel

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Blimey, Thar Be Some Cajun Grub to Pillage

2007-10-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 19)

Every week, we present you with a unique OC dining experience. Sometimes that means excellent food at an underappreciated local spot. Other times that means an interesting atmosphere or eating environment.

And then there’s Claws Restaurant. A newly-opened pirate-themed, Vietnamese-run Cajun joint. In the heavily minority city of Garden Grove.

What’s interesting is that Cajun restaurants have become big business around Little Saigon and Garden Grove over the last couple of years, perhaps owing to the similarities in the French cultural roots of both Cajun and Vietnamese cooking (just think how perfect Sriracha sauce would be with your fried catfish). The gold standard is The Boiling Crab, which also just opened an Alhambra location a few months ago. But there are several imitators, of which Claws happens to be the latest.

So when I heard about Claws’ grand opening less than a month ago, I didn’t really take notice. Another place with an $8/lb crawfish boil. But then I heard it was pirate-themed, and went on the website and saw management promoting itself with statements like “if any pirate shall offer to run away without drinking beer shall be marroon’d [sic] with one bottle of diet coke, and pinched by the captain.” Oh yes, I’m there. I’m thinking this could be a real-life enactment of that Fresh Prince episode where Will works at that pirate restaurant to pay for his homecoming dance (OK no one got that last reference, but you can YouTube it here, here, and here).

And indeed, the restaurant looks like you walked into the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, with life-size pirate figures, paintings of vessels, and skeleton-decorated banners strewn across the ceiling. About the only thing it was missing was the costumed help with a parrot on the shoulder (if Hot Dog on a Stick employees can be convinced to wear those ridiculous multi-colored, big-hat getups, why not make them wear eyepatches and peglegs). Of course, the eight tracks of Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, and Kanye West that were on blast didn’t exactly fit with the “Yo Ho” atmosphere.

The menu is pretty standard fare, with all types of fried seafood, as well as crab, mussels, oysters, and clams. Traditional Cajun dishes like etouffee, jambalaya, and gumbo are available as well. However, given that these restaurants are known for their crawfish boils, I had to oblige (though Claws only serves crawfish from NorCal and not Louisiana). After having had fresh stone crabs in Miami last weekend, eating crawfish was kind of like downgrading from a Ruth’s Chris filet to a Norm’s T-Bone steak and eggs. Still, there’s always something primitively enjoyable about reaching your hand into that plastic bag, pulling apart those little crawfish and gnawing at the innards. Suck the head, eat the tail, right? I ordered a pound, spicy, with Claws’ cannonball flavor (a mixture of Cajun, garlic butter, and lemon pepper seasoning). The spices were robust, and after about three crawfish, all I could feel was burn, and occasionally garlic. But the spice mix was tasty, and even today I’m getting hungry smelling the remaining residue on my fingers that I haven’t been able to get rid of overnight. As far as the crawfish meat was concerned, the choice tail pieces had the familiar crustacean taste, though prying them open killed my fingers. I even went all out and sucked up the body meat, with the uncomfortable combination of chewy, liquidy, and crunchy comprising the various textures of the body and organs, and that unmistakable flavor (for lack of a better word) of those components. And anytime I my taste buds got too overwhelmed, I had my trusty friend Sam Adams there to give me a hand.

I also ordered the gumbo, which was a perfectly good pot of shrimp, andouille sausage, mussels, and fish mixed in a brown roux with okra, celery, bell peppers, and onions. After some Wikipedia research, I determined that the inclusion of tomatoes in the roux made it more Creole-style than Cajun-style. Either way, I’ll gladly have me some more of it. You have the option for with or without rice, but interestingly enough, the rice was mixed into the gumbo like a jambalaya as opposed to served on top of rice.

And since I needed something to help absorb the spices of my crawfish, I picked up an order of fried okra (bah health, save the corn for another day). Lightly breaded, and served with a side of ranch, the okra made a nice little bite-size side. In fact, I think bars should serve fried okra; they taste lighter than fries and give you the juiciness of a green vegetable, as opposed to the starchiness of a potato. The okra were simply seasoned with salt and pepper; certainly nothing gourmet here, but good old-fashioned finger food.

If you happen to hurry down there this weekend, Claws is finishing its grand-opening promotion which features 20% off your ticket, free soda, and $2 domestic beers (please remember to drink responsibly, drinking six beers is still not going to put out that fire on your tongue). And they even hooked me up with a little portion of coconut jello for dessert.

Yes, it seems a little counterintuitive to make a trip to Westminster/Garden Grove and eat anything but Vietnamese (or Korean) food. I’m not one to vouch for the authenticity of Cajun food, but I think you could do much worse. And there aren’t even any pirates holding a sword to my throat to make me type this.

Claws Restaurant
12093 Brookhurst St. #E
Garden Grove, CA 92840

Late Night Eats: Regent Cafe

2007-10-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 12)

One of the things I love most about LA is the depth of its cultural diversity. I don’t love the fact that it’s so segregated, but I appreciate the fact that in contrast to the outsider view that LA is simply a vapid, endless string of cookie-cutter communities, every neighborhood has its own character and identity (witness our Neighborhood Projects). Which means that no matter what you’re into, you can find a place that fits your personality and style.

As anyone that knows anything about LA knows, the San Gabriel Valley is where a good portion of the more than 400,000 LA County Chinese residents live. Though bordering on East LA and Pasadena, it feels a world apart, from all of the Chinese businesses and signage to the overwhelming amount of Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese spoken (depending on where you are). While the cities in the San Gabriel Valley are much closer to suburban than urban, and thus lacking in many bars and late night entertainment, there still exists a wealth of after-hour locations to eat. Regent Cafe in Alhambra is just one of these options.

Regent is a Hong Kong-style café, which can best described in American terms as a Chinese diner. Like an American diner, these cafés are open almost around the clock and have a wide variety of foods to choose from. The roots of Hong Kong cafés originate from the Western influence of the British, serving a combination of Cantonese imitations of Western dishes and traditional Chinese food and beverages. There are over 150 items on Regent’s menu, including pastas, curries, noodles, rice dishes, and even steaks and seafood, so it’s almost guaranteed that you can find something that you want to eat on the menu. You can opt for old stodgy classics like Chicken a la King or more exotic fare like baked ox tongue. Additionally, desserts like soufflé, crepes, and cakes are available, along with specialty drinks like boba tea.

Besides the hours and variety, Hong Kong-style cafes also tend to be similar to classic diners in that you get what you pay for. That is, the food is nothing to write home about, but is very reasonably priced. At Regent, most of the dishes are between $5 and $8, so you can get a good-portioned late-night snack without having to hit up the ATM.

If you’ve spent much time in the SGV, you know that if you’re only an English speaker, it can be pretty difficult to get much help of any kind, particularly at many restaurants. The wait staff at Regent is proficient enough in English, though having a Cantonese speaker with you generally means you’ll get more attentive service (not that it’s very good in the first place). The crowd is almost all Chinese, not surprisingly, and quiets down pretty significantly later on in the evening. Like all the other cafes in the area, people tend to go to Regent simply to grease their stomach and just loiter with friends. The atmosphere is much more welcoming than a lot of Chinese restaurants, with American soft rock music over the loudspeaker, high airy ceilings, an abundance of green plants, and light pastel colors, making it a pleasant place to simply hang out.

As I mentioned before, one does not go to cafes for the food, one goes to eat. On this particular night, I opted for the tan chai porridge, fish fillet on rice satay, and a red bean milkshake. The porridge was primarily a seafood congee, with shrimp, squid, and jellyfish, but topped with sliced peanuts, fried wontons, and scallions, sort of a strange combination of flavors and textures. It’s a huge bowl, and I really wasn’t in the mood to eat that much, especially given how bland congee tends to be. On the other hand, the fish fillet had a lot more flavor, served with sliced onions in a not-too-spicy brown sauce. Served on a bed of rice, it was simple, but easy on the stomach after a long night. This would be a dish that I would be OK with ordering for dinner as well. And of course I had to balance the sweet and the savory, made all the easier since I’m a sucker for milkshakes. The red bean milkshake was essentially a surprisingly good vanilla milkshake with scoops of red beans mixed in (not completely blended). Adding the red bean diluted some of the sweetness while adding some textural contrast, but not so much that it stopped being a beverage. Definitely yummy.

Regent Cafe is not the most well-known or the most popular café in the area, but it just happens to be the one that I end up at most frequently because of its convenient location at Garfield and Valley. So if you’re not satisfied with your food or your service, you can always drive down Valley to another café. Or, ironically, you can pop across the street to the original location of The Hat for their bomb pastrami dip sandwich. Ain’t diversity grand?

Regent Cafe
1411 S. Garfield Ave.
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 289-9398

Sun-Thu: 10 am-1 am
Fri-Sat: 10 am-3 am

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Yes, It Tastes Like Chicken

2007-10-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 12)

As someone who rarely eats red meat (but is not a vegetarian), my options for protein are pretty limited. Consequently, I eat a lot of chicken as well as a fair amount of fish. Chicken obviously is not the most exciting meat to eat, and despite many attempts to prepare chicken in every conceivable manner to extract some discernible flavor (except maybe sous vide, sorry Hung), I usually end up with a bland piece of poultry that I have to goose up by dousing it in some sauce or killing it with spices.

However, at Rosine’s in Anaheim Hills, the taste of chicken is elevated to a level far beyond my conventional eating experience. Rosine’s is a family-owned Eastern Mediterranean restaurant mostly known for its rotisserie chicken, although the menu also contains an extensive assortment of kebabs, pita sandwiches, and a handful of other traditional Mediterranean dishes. While entrees are fairly priced from $8-$12 for lunch and $11-$18 for dinner, by far the best deal is the rotisserie chicken combination plate. Not only do you get a half-chicken, but also two sides from the restaurant’s long list, plus a serving of the garlic sauce, all for $9.50. Rosine’s also has an impressive wine list for a restaurant of its size and stature, including a number of German Rieslings, Lebanese Reds, and many French and Californian selections.

What makes the rotisserie chicken so good? I don’t know the preparation secret, although I was highly tempted to ask. What I do know is that the chicken comes out incredibly moist. Like not just moist, but melt in your mouth moist. Wow. I took that first bite and I was really stunned, which doesn’t really happen that much (it was probably my low expectation chicken bias kicking in). The amazing thing was that the natural flavor of the meat really came out, proving to me that as bland as chicken breast can be, it doesn’t necessarily have to taste so generically. The bird wasn’t seasoned that heavily, but it didn’t need to be, and the golden, slightly crispy skin just burst with flavor. Surprisingly, the “special” garlic sauce (which is more like a spread), which I would normally suffocate the chicken with, became more of the complementary flavor rather than the dominant flavor.

The selection of sides is almost as long as the selection of entrees, offering cold dishes like hummus and tabbouleh, salads, and potatoes to name a few. My first side was the ratatouille, which I had had a craving for since Dale’s deconstructed ratatouille on Top Chef and the adorable (yet disgusting) rat’s specialty dish in the Pixar movie. While I didn’t have that “a-ha” moment like in the movie, I did enjoy the stewed vegetables and herbs. The dish was skewed towards the tomatoes and the zucchini, but also included eggplant, peppers, and carrots. It was a nice hearty accompaniment to the chicken and an excellent contrast to my other side, the wheat pilav. The pilaf, mixed with orzo, contained the grainy taste of the bulgur, but was extremely buttery, giving it a heaviness that was a bit unwanted. Nevertheless, the combination of the three items made for a very well-balanced meal with no shortage of sensations to my tastebuds.

The interesting thing about the restaurant is that it is designed to look much more decadent than the outside or the menu would suggest. The lighting is very dim, relying on candles at each table and on the walls to illuminate the room. The resulting effect is a more intimate, formal setting, which is contradictory to the simple plating and tableware. Rosine’s also displays some of its war chest of wine, with racks built into the wall separating the dining room and the kitchen and more bottles prominently displayed in a small cabinet. Thus, while you are getting a pretty simple meal, you feel like you are dining out at a higher end restaurant.

My biggest complaint? Every time I eat my own poorly cooked, dried out chicken breast, I’m going to be thinking of Rosine’s rotisserie chicken, annoyed that I have to subject myself to such boring, bland food. Thanks for nothing Rosine’s.

Rosine’s
721 S. Weir Canyon Rd.
Anaheim, CA 92808

Bruin Recap – Time to Dust Off That Resumé Karl (I Hope)

2007-10-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 8)
(Featured on Bruins Nation on October 9)

It was my mom’s birthday this weekend and we got to spend a nice dinner together just talking and enjoying each other’s company. Moms are great in that they’ll always be your biggest fan no matter how much you screw up or disappoint them (and I’ve certainly had my fair share of screw-ups and disappointments).

What do moms have to do with UCLA football? Pretty simple. After the Bruins’ latest embarrassing loss, 20-6 to previously winless Notre Dame, about the only person who still supports Karl Dorrell’s tenure as coach is probably his mother. Only a mom could stay blindly loyal to someone who has managed to turn the name ‘UCLA’ into a national punchline by losing handily to a team who has been the laughingstock of football the entire season.

For many Bruin football followers, this loss is the culmination of nearly five years of angst which began the moment Dorrell was hired, owing to the highly suspect coaching search which landed him, and the coach’s lack of credentials for taking over a program of this caliber. The optimists have been trying to hold out hope that the positives from Dorrell’s regime, such as the clean up of the mess left by Bob Toledo, the improvement of the locker room culture, and rebuilding of the local recruiting pipeline, could outweigh the obvious deficiencies in strategic vision, game-planning, and in-game adjustments. And just about everyone wanted Dorrell to be successful because of his Bruin heritage, his likable personality (despite the lack of charisma), and his work ethic. However, this game simply confirmed the mounting evidence that the program has gone as far as it is going to go with this coach. And I’d have to say that Bruin Nation is not terribly enthused about another fifth-place conference finish and loss in the Waste Management Mediocrity Bowl (OK I made that one up), which is about what this year’s “breakthrough” team seems destined for.

Certainly, the excuse can be made that injuries cost the Bruins the game (or as Karl alluded to in his post-game interview, the team is “snakebit”). Starting QB Ben Olson injured his knee on a sack in the first quarter, and with backup Patrick Cowan also sidelined with a knee injury, the burden fell on walk-on freshman McLeod Bethel-Thompson to lead the team. Let’s just say he brought new meaning to the term ‘deer in headlights’, as evidenced by the five turnovers and four sacks he gave up (the lack of blocking definitely didn’t help). I love the story of the movie Rudy, but dude never had to be in position to win a game on national TV with the ball in his hands for three-plus quarters. Poor McLeod did as much as a kid with his level of experience and talent could do, but he clearly wasn’t ready.

Nevertheless, there is no justification for the number of mistakes made by veteran players. A season-high 11 penalties, including a holding penalty on Logan Paulsen that negated a long touchdown pass. Kahlil Bell had another fumble, plus a drop of a wide-open touchdown pass during a possession that ultimately ended up in an interception. Yes, players are responsible for making the plays on the field, but when the team is making the same mistakes every week, somehow whatever the coaching staff is telling them isn’t sinking in. Every week in his press conference, Dorrell points out that the team needs to execute better. Newsflash, they haven’t executed well all season, maybe there’s something wrong with the gameplan and the overall philosophy that needs adjusting.

And that last point is the glaring takeaway from this game: the coaching staff is either not flexible enough or not smart enough to make changes, either to the entire offensive system, or to specific gameplans during the game. For five seasons, Dorrell has attempted to implement his West Coast offense philosophy with mixed success (national ranking in scoring: ’03-100, ’04-29, ’05-5, ’06-64, ’07-57), rigidly sticking to it despite having very different personnel during those years. Over the last couple of seasons when the offense has been mediocre at best, it’s been obvious that Olson is far more comfortable taking deep drops and throwing downfield, while Cowan is better suited to quick reads and short and intermediate routes. But the gameplans haven’t been adjusted to play to those specifc strengths.

On Saturday, the Bruins were facing the second-worst rushing defense in the country. Given that UCLA’s offensive strength is the running game (despite Chris Markey’s absence), and with a THIRD-STRING FRESHMAN WALK-ON under center, you would think that they would pound the ball, even if Notre Dame loaded up the box and blitzed all night (which they did). After all, two weeks ago against Washington, when Bethel-Thompson came in early in the fourth quarter (albeit with a lead) after Cowan got hurt, they ran it 19 times; the only pass play was a botched halfback pass. So why did they all of a sudden get pass-happy against the Irish? Your starting quarterback is no longer in the game, maybe you should try to put the game in the hands of your senior running back and senior offensive line rather than an inexperienced freshman quarterback.

Three plays in particular exemplified the idiocy of the playcalling. Play #1, second quarter, third-and-two in Notre Dame territory, the Bruins have moved the ball 40 yards with five runs and one pass. Jay Norvell calls a rollout pass to the tight end. Incomplete pass. Punt. Play #2, third quarter, fourth-and-one in field goal range with a 6-3 lead. Bruins burn a timeout, then call a five-wide set with no running backs. Not even trying to disguise a pass! McLeod gets sacked. Irish have the ball and momentum. Play #3, third quarter, third-and-six on their own five-yard-line. Rollout pass in the end zone for a corner route to the tight end, not exactly a safe pass play. Ball intercepted and returned inside the five, leading to the go-ahead touchdown. WTF? There were only two negative rushing plays (excluding sacks and fumbled snaps) the whole game. Why are you relying on the weakest part of your team, letting your overmatched QB try to make risky plays, instead of relying on the strongest part of your team: defense, special teams, and running game?

I’m sure McLeod feels terrible because his poor play led to the Bruins losing the game. But in reality, the coaching staff did not put him in position to be successful, it put him in a position to make mistakes. That is what is most disheartening about the loss. Unlike the Utah game, which was far more embarrassing in terms of lack of effort on the field, this loss wasn’t about players not showing up to play as much as it was an inability for Dorrell and staff to give them the best opportunity to win. And that’s a shame for these kids that generally work hard and represent the types of student-athletes we can be proud of. On a night where the defense played strong, neutralizing the punchless Notre Dame offense (140 total yards and only three points allowed that weren’t the direct result of turnovers), there should be no reason why they look up at the scoreboard and see a 14-point defeat and watch the humiliating scene of opposing players celebrating on the Rose Bowl grass.

Perhaps the most telling sign of the current state of affairs was the fan response in the early stages of the game when everyone still thought that the Bruins would win. There were a number of Irish fans sitting in my section (and in every other section) and despite their team’s 0-5 debacle of a season to that point and poor execution on the field, they still conveyed optimism and enthusiasm because they’re excited about the direction that Charlie Weis has the program headed in the right direction. Contrast that to the Bruin fans, who were groaning after every bad play, expecting something bad to happen because that’s what seems to happen to this team under Dorrell, despite a seemingly lofty 4-1 record. There is no confidence in the direction of the program, only the expectation that things are going to get worse. How can this be allowed to continue?

Now the big question is whether the athletic department, which supposedly loves Karl, has the stones to pull the trigger (and if you want to encourage them, AD Dan Guerrero’s email is dguerrero@athletics.ucla.edu). It may cost them this stellar recruiting class that Dorrell is bringing in, and it will cost a lot of money to buyout some contracts. But you know what, if someone doesn’t know how to drive a car, it’s not going to matter whether he has a Ferrari or he has a Kia. The car is still not going to go anywhere. It’s time to find someone that’s got his drivers license, even if his car his only a Camry.

The only good news from Saturday? Stanford 24 USC 23. Sad to say, that was about the only thing that elicited much of a cheer from Bruin fans at the Rose Bowl. Yay, we can take comfort in the fact that we weren’t the only team to embarrass ourselves this weekend. Yes, this is UCLA football.

AP Photos by Kevork Djansezian

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

2007-10-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 5)

Several years ago, I used to work in Downtown. Because I would often work through lunch, I had a certain place (Skew’s at Cal Plaza) that I would grab for takeout at every day. It was the combination of quality food (for a fast-casual place), large portions (necessary for someone that eats as much as I do), and healthy menu items (plain chicken breast, salad, brown rice) that continued to draw me back despite a plethora of other options in the area. And it wasn’t just that I went there every day, it was that I ordered the exact same thing every day (albeit getting a different sauce with the chicken). It’s not that I’m a total creature of habit; in fact, I love to try new things. But occasionally, I’ll find something that I enjoy so much that I don’t even bother to try anything else.

So about a year ago, I stumbled upon Fukada in Irvine. There are a ton of quality Japanese restaurants in the central Orange County area, so despite its lofty recommendations (it’s a Yelp favorite), I wasn’t expecting it to be that memorable. It was memorable. And even though I go back all the time and order the same Spicy Tuna Don on brown rice with sansai soba noodles (unless I order the Unagi Don), I never walk away feeling disappointed. Except for the absurdly long lines that often greet me (particularly during lunch).

Although Fukada has a full array of Japanese dishes, it is best known for its handmade noodles. The restaurant serves both udon, which are the thick wheat noodles, and soba, which are the thin buckwheat noodles, in both hot and cold form. The noodles are topped with any number of ingredients, including oroshi (Japanese radish), chikara (mochi), or kamonanban (cooked duck), and served in a soy-based broth. For the combination plate that I always order, your options are sansai (Japanese mountain vegetables) or tanuki (tempura). I love the sansai because of the lightness of the vegetables, which helps give the noodles a crispness (not to mention some color) for a wholly satisfying, but healthy dish.

Besides the freshness of the food, dishes are extremely affordable considering the quality. I love me some $5 ramen at the numerous spots in Little Tokyo/Little Osaka, so Fukada’s noodles are slightly more expensive, ranging in price from $6-$9, depending on your selection of toppings. Where the value comes in is the combination plate. The restaurant’s special is a donburi (bowl of rice with your choice of protein) and an order of noodles, a full, well-rounded meal at a highly affordable price (lunch $9/dinner $11). As I mentioned earlier, I am highly partial to the Spicy Tuna Don on brown rice. The tuna is not overly loaded with mayonnaise or Japanese hot pepper as you may get at some sushi restaurants, helping to keep it lighter on the stomach. Fukada gives you a big glop on top of a nice bed of rice (gotta have brown rice, not only for the additional fiber and nutrients, but the slightly grainy taste and texture) and some nori (seaweed) flakes. Add a little wasabi and (low sodium) soy sauce and you get more yummy goodness. My fallback is the Unagi Don, which replaces the spicy tuna with a nice chunk of sliced freshwater eel, topped with kabayaki sauce. Either way, you really can’t go wrong.

Fukada is a smallish restaurant seating maybe 50 people, which contributes to the crowdedness, though the wait staff cycles tables through relatively fast. The décor is minimalist, with long wooden tables and wooden benches in the middle, and individual tables on the side. Thus, you may not only get some great food, but also some great conversation with random strangers as you bump elbows in the cramped seating arrangements.

So I’ve probably been to Fukada at least 25 times and tried maybe five things on the menu. For all I know, the rest of its food could totally blow (I doubt it, but it’s possible). I do know that I’ve never misfired on my tried and true, and that’s what keeps me coming back. Over and over. And over. In fact, I’m getting a little hungry right now.

Fukada
8683 Irvine Center Dr.
Irvine, CA 92718

Bruin Recap - In a Comedy of Errors, UCLA Gets the Last Laugh

2007-10-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on October 1)

40-14. Sounds like an impressive UCLA road win over Oregon St., something that has not come very often during the Dorrell era. In reality, it was a comically bad display of execution by both teams, with the Bruins finally able to take advantage of the Beavers’ total ineptitude on offense and special teams.

With all of the upsets in college football this weekend, any win is a good win, no matter how ugly it is. And make no mistake about it, this was one of the ugliest, at least until about midway through the fourth quarter when Oregon St. completely imploded and the Bruins ran off 28 points in seven minutes.

How ugly was it? Kahlil Bell fumbled on the Bruins’ first two offensive plays, the second getting returned for a touchdown. UCLA had eight penalties, including six offensive penalties in the second half. On one fantastic sequence in the third quarter, the Bruins were facing third and one on the Oregon St. seven-yard line, poised for the go-ahead touchdown. UCLA committed two false start penalties in a row, then Ben Olson forced a ball into double coverage that got intercepted. Bruin football, feel the excitement.

Fortunately, Oregon St. was measurably worse. The Beavers came into the game worst in the nation in committing turnovers, and they gave away five more, mostly on unforced mistakes like the fumbles on consecutive kickoff returns in the fourth quarter that allowed the Bruins to break the game open. They had a touchdown called back on a facemask penalty. Their All-American kicker missed a field goal. They had a punt blocked. It was so unbelievably awful, it felt scripted out of a movie.

On the positive side, the UCLA defense brought its ‘A’ game. With the Bruin offense unable to even get a first down until midway through the second quarter, Oregon St. was able to jump out to a 14-0 lead. It looked like the Utah game was happening all over again. Thankfully for Bruin fans, the Beavers offense sought to prove it could be even more inept. Unlike every other opponent this season, the Beavers didn’t try to spread the field, which allowed UCLA’s front seven to dictate the flow of the game. While Beaver running back Yvenson Bernard found some success on the ground for 125 yards, the Bruin defense held him in check after the first three drives, daring quarterback Sean Canfield to beat them. And he couldn’t. Every pass he threw was an adventure, equally likely to end up in the arms of a Bruin defender as a Beaver receiver, and there was no attempt to throw the ball down the field. Trey Brown had two picks, but there were several other near interceptions. Oregon St. only managed 107 yards total offense after the first quarter, giving the Bruins the time to chip away at the lead with the offense (and it would need a lot of time). It was clearly the most dominant performance of the season for a unit that was highly regarded before the season, but had been grossly underachieving.

From an offensive perspective, the brief fourth quarter explosion should not overshadow the fact that the Bruin offense was really bad for most of the game. Oregon St. came into the game second in the country in rushing defense, so it was not surprising that the UCLA running game wasn’t terribly effective (50 carries for 133 yards), though it gained more yards than the Beavers had allowed in their first four games combined. By sticking with Bell (despite his fumbles) and Chris Markey, the Bruin line wore down the Beaver line in the fourth quarter.

However, the passing game was out of sync again, with nearly half of Ben Olson’s yards coming on two touchdown plays to Brandon Breazell: a 69-yard slip screen and then a great 30-yard deep post. The Bruins found some success with screen passes to the running backs to capitalize on the Beavers’ aggressiveness, which had been missing from the repertoire this year. But there were no completions, besides the one touchdown, beyond about seven yards down the field. Jay Norvell tried without success to incorporate more deep sideline patterns to utilize Olson’s arm, but seemed to abandon any intermediate routes. Still, Olson played decently, quieting the pro-Patrick Cowan crowd (like me) for the time being. He appeared a little more comfortable in the pocket than his past two starts, and showed he can make some throws when given time. Furthermore, he didn’t make as many poor throws as previous starts, other than the bad interception (sadly that’s the standard these days). The problem is that with the shaky play of the offensive line and the predictability of the offense, he’s been unnecessarily under fire a lot of times throughout the season. For example, the vanilla playcalling on first down on Saturday (23 runs versus 8 passes, conservative much?) put the Bruins in a lot of second and long situations, leading to obvious passing situations where Oregon St. could apply some pressure. The bottom line is that it seemed questionable whether UCLA could even score more than 14 points to complete the comeback, and that speaks volumes about how far the offense needs to go, both in schemes and execution.

The biggest difference in the game was the disparity in special teams. I touted the strength of UCLA’s special teams last week, and it was clear how impactful a good special teams unit can be, particularly contrasted against a unit as woeful as that of Oregon St. Besides the aforementioned mistakes of the Beavers (the two fumbled kickoff returns, missed field goal, and blocked punt cost them 24 points in total), Alexis Serna was also terrible on punts (no surprise there, he’s last in the nation in punting), averaging less than 29 yards per kick – though to be fair, Serna is only punting because the starting punter quit the team – helping the Bruins win the field position battle. Meanwhile, Aaron Perez pinned the Beavers inside the 20 twice, while Kai Forbath connected on two more field goals. Matthew Slater again was a force, recovering a fumble and making at least three tackles just on kickoffs. In a game where both offenses are struggling, better field position can be the deciding factor, and it was pivotal in Saturday’s contest.

So now what? The Bruins are 4-1 and 3-0 in the Pac-10. Yet it still feels like they aren’t playing good football, and fans are just waiting for other shoe to drop, also known as the annual Karl Dorrell post-October swoon. UCLA did enough things right to beat a lower-tier Oregon St. team, but improvement better be coming quick with four top-20 teams still on the schedule. Since winless Notre Dame comes to town this week, we probably won’t get a feel for how ~~average~~ good this team really is until October 20 when mighty #3 Cal (?!?) visits the Rose Bowl. Good enough isn’t going to cut it for much longer. The question is whether the Bruins have it in them to put together some complete performances, or if we’re going to have to put up with continued mediocrity with flashes of brilliance. Gee, can you tell how optimistic I am? [bangs head against wall] Oh right, we’re still in first place. Still in first, still in first…

AP Photos by Ryan Gardner

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – A Taste of Oktober

2007-09-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 28)

Ah, the beginning of fall. The ~~leaves changing color~~ onset of football season, cooler temperatures. And Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest is of course the infamous two-week German festival annually held in Munich, mostly known for the consumption of copious amounts of beer. Last Saturday marked the beginning of the official Oktoberfest. Out here in LA, celebrations are somewhat muted as compared to other American cities, owing to our relative lack of German heritage, but that certainly doesn’t mean that we can’t rock our lederhosen and get our beer stein on. Alpine Village in Torrance and Old World Village in Huntington Beach hold two of the more prominent festivals in the Southland.

I was in a mid-week mood to get in touch with my inner German, and since a trip across the Atlantic was out of the question for me, I went for the next best thing and popped over to Anaheim to hit up Jägerhaus, one of the few authentic German restaurants around.

From the outside, Jägerhaus looks like a total dumpy dive bar, with faulty lighted signs and a forgettable paint job. Similarly, the immediate observation upon walking into the restaurant is, “what is this décor?” Old floral wallpaper with shelves of beer mugs on the walls, green carpets, and wooden tables. Plus, German polka music softly playing in the overhead speakers. I gather the longtime owners Anton and Sandra Schwaiger sought to bring a homey feel to the place, but it was rather disorienting for me.

Fortunately, sitting down and taking a look at the menu chock full of traditional dishes helped bring some familiarity back. Jägerhaus serves ample numbers of breakfast items, featuring classic German-style pancakes and omelettes. However, it’s the completeness of the lunch and dinner menu that is most notable. There are eight types of schnitzel to choose from (including turkey), as well as multiple variations of goulash. Of course sausages are on the menu. More interesting are the different kinds of meat, including lamb shank, grilled deer, roast ham hock, and braised wild boar. Entrees are served with two sides, with a long list of options like traditional sauerkraut and potato salad to creamed spinach and baked beans.

I am partial to schnitzel, but instead of getting a traditionally prepared pan-fried dish, I opted for the Butter Schnitzel, a thinly-sliced cut of veal topped with sautéed mushrooms and onions. And by topped, it’s not just a few sliced mushrooms. It’s literally a mound of mushrooms; if I didn’t know any better, I would have just assumed it was a mushroom dish with a side of meat. True to its name, it was quite buttery. The veal cutlet was cooked really nicely, moist and juicy, and the absence of the breading as would be served in a Wiener Schnitzel reduced some of the heaviness. The flavor of the mushrooms, especially considering the sheer volume, did drown out a lot of the taste of the veal. Whether or not that’s a good thing, I suppose, depends on your flavor preference, it was fine for me.

The best part of my meal was the potato pancakes that I got on the side. Accompanied by a small serving of applesauce, the pancakes were amazingly light and fluffy. Rather than a hash-brown style pancake, the potatoes were minced into batter, and it seemed that a greater portion of egg was used than I’ve seen at other places, though the taste and texture of the potato was still evident. I felt that cooking it this way enhanced the use of the applesauce as a topping.

In addition to the potato pancakes, I also got a side order of spätzle. The thick macaroni-like egg noodles were topped with gravy, and I think were the primary cause of my stomach filling up about halfway through the meal (though I plowed through like a champ). And what German meal would be complete without washing it down with a little brewski? Jägerhaus has several bottled German beers, as well as a few on draft – I went with the Hofbräu lager, which is lighter than I would normally drink, but given the denseness of my meal (or the wussiness of my stomach), was actually a perfect complement.

In the movie Office Space (one of the all-time greats), there’s a classic line by Stan the flair-centric manager who tells Jennifer Aniston’s character Joanna, “People can get a cheeseburger anywhere, OK? They come to Chotchkie’s for the atmosphere and the attitude.” And he goes on to rant more about flair. Jägerhaus is like that only completely opposite. People can’t get authentic German food anywhere in LA. So they come to Jägerhaus for a good meal, even though the atmosphere and attitude don’t bring back any such associations with Germany. That’s OK with me; I’ll just put on some Hasselhoff when I get home.

Jägerhaus
2525 Ball Rd.
Anaheim, CA 92806

The Disneyland Dispatch Volume XII

2007-09-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

DBSJ is still going strong after twelve years! With another memorable year in the books, we continue to keep the tradition alive. After last year's seminal newspaper, DBSJ Publications continued to raise the bar with a digital scrapbook to capture all of the key moments from this year's event.

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Who Let the Dogs Out

2007-09-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 21)

They say that dogs are a man's best friend. I didn't have a dog growing up, due to my mom's fur allergies, so I never quite understood the sense of passion that dog-owners have for their canine companions. But over the years, after seeing how intensely loyal and loving they are to their dogs, even moreso than people in many cases, I've wondered why there aren't more businesses that cater to dogs and the people that love them.

The Park Bench Cafe in Huntington Beach is one of the few restaurants that I've been to which completely embraces this dog-friendly mentality. An outdoor cafe located in Huntington Beach's Central Park, Park Bench is a haven for dog-lovers that want a good meal while taking their furry loved ones out for a little recreation. Serving breakfast and lunch, the café can stand alone as a quality eatery, but truly differentiates itself by virtue of its dog-friendly atmosphere.

The first thing you notice when you see the café is that there are two separate dining areas, a regular dining area on the blacktop and a specific “doggie dining area” (see photo above) on the lawn so that dogs can actually sit down and eat with their owners. What do you mean sit down and eat with their owners? I mean, Park Bench has a separate dog menu that can be ordered off of, like a kid’s menu. Dishes include ‘Rover Easy’ (two scrambled eggs), ‘Hot Diggity Dog’ (sliced all-beef hot dog), and ‘Wrangler Roundup’ (which the menu describes as “lean ground turkey patty for those doggies on a low-fat diet”). There’s even peanut butter churro bites. And the wait staff relishes in getting to pet the dogs and learning a little more about them.

For us humans, especially those of us without dogs, that care about the dining experience, Park Bench Café is also a nice place to have a morning meal. The picturesque park setting surrounded by trees creates the impression of being deep in nature, though the restaurant is just removed from a main drag. And the menu is chock full of comfort food items that you would find at a casual diner, from breakfast foods like omelettes, pancakes, and French toast, to lunch items like burgers, sandwiches, and salads. Most everything on the menu is priced between $7 and $10, or what you’d pay for a meal at Denny’s.

I was in a breakfasty mood, but needed a heavier meal, so I went for one of the specials, the behemoth Farm Breakfast. The dish is a mouthful just to describe, let alone eat, but it is essentially a skillet dish that consists of an egg scramble with onions, mushrooms, BACON, and cheddar and jack cheese. It’s served on top of a bed on sliced potatoes (which they term home fries, though they were marginally fried), and for the million-dollar twist, topped with sliced avocado. Although bad Ryan would have preferred hash-brown style potatoes for that extra layer of grease and a better contrast of textures with some additional crunch, good Ryan noted that I was getting all four food groups and several kinds of vegetables.

I generally love skillet dishes, so this one was not spectacularly better than any that I’ve had at other good breakfast places. Still, the addition of the avocadoes definitely enhanced the flavor combination (I mean, BACON, cheese, onions, mushrooms plus avocadoes - seriously, that’s almost always going to be tasty). Despite the respective heaviness of those ingredients, I found the dish was considerably lighter than expected (or maybe I wolfed it down too fast). The eggs were cooked to a medium firmness and the potatoes (skins on) were unseasoned, providing the reliable base starch but not adding any savoriness to the dish. I would have loved some peppers or some seasoned salt to give it more kick, but I’m also the guy that will drown his food in spices so what do I know? All in all, a satisfying start to the day, and I even got to dog-watch as well.

Park Bench Café has been run by a dog-loving husband and wife team, Mike and Christie Bartusick, for the last 19 years. When I was there, they were out casually small-talking with all of the guests, and most enjoyably for them, getting to know all of their canine customers. The restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays from Fall through late Spring.

I always place a premium on the quality of service and attentiveness that a restaurant provides because I believe it truly does make a difference when food is prepared with love. (There’s that Top Chef mantra again) In the case of Park Bench Café, you’re not just going to get a lovingly-prepared meal for you. You’ll also get deep, genuine love for that other four-legged member of your family that you love just as dearly.

The Park Bench Café
17732 Goldenwest St.
Huntington Beach, CA 9264

Bruin Recap: Karl Dorrell, You are Now on the Budweiser Hot Seat

2007-09-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 17)
(Featured on Between the 20s, Bruins Nation, Coaches Hot Seat, and Defamer on September 17)

Pathetic. Pitiful. Putrid.

There are not enough adjectives that start with the letter ‘P’, or any other letter for that matter, that can adequately describe how bad UCLA’s 44-6 abomination of a performance was on Saturday against Utah.

In the forgettable tenure of Karl Dorrell’s coaching career at UCLA, the Bruins have had numerous embarrassing efforts. But I think this one was the worst of all. Because this one really can’t be reasonably explained nor justified. Because this one completely submarines all hopes that fans had on this year being the year. Because after this one, there’s really no reason to believe that it’s not going to happen again and again.

It’s understood that all teams will have off days sometimes. After all, these are 18- to 22-year old kids (well, except for 24-year old “star” QB Ben Olson). But good teams do not have off days in which they lose by 38 points to a winless team that was missing its starting quarterback, starting running back, and starting #1 wideout. Good teams do not allow themselves to be physically dominated on both sides of the ball without a competitive response. Good teams do not fail to show up for 60 minutes. And the Bruins, no matter what the ranking or win-loss record said over the last five seasons, have never been a good team under Dorrell.

This wasn’t the case of being beaten by a more talented and physically gifted team like USC. This was the case of being underprepared, outcoached, and outexecuted in comparison to a Utah squad that did not match up on paper, but was ready to play 60 minutes of ball. Apparently, the Bruins weren’t ready to put forth anything resembling a best effort. Or any kind of effort for that matter.

The number of mistakes committed by the Bruins was staggering. Five turnovers, including some unbelievably bad interceptions by Olson that Pop Warner QBs wouldn’t even throw, led directly to 24 Utah points. Marcus Everett making the biggest offensive play of the game on a fly pattern down the sideline, then fumbling the ball through the end zone for a touchback when trying to stretch for the pylon, costing the Bruins their only scoring opportunity all afternoon. Four first quarter procedure or delay of game penalties that stymied the offense. Repeated breakdowns in the secondary allowing Utah receivers to literally walk into the end zone.

I would give a more thorough game recap, but it’s pretty simple. The Bruins sucked in every facet of the game. Except the kicking game – Kai Forbath, game ball! A 45-yard field goal and a 51-yard field goal means that hey, maybe we won’t miss Justin Medlock, recently cut by the Kansas City Chiefs. From the opening series in which Alterraun Verner got torched for a 55 yard touchdown, UCLA looked completely befuddled on both sides of the ball. The offensive line didn’t block, leading to a non-existent running game. The receivers didn’t get open, and when they did, Olson fired balls at their feet or over their heads. The defensive line not only didn’t pressure the quarterback but didn’t even stuff the run this week. The linebackers were totally ineffective, overpursuing and missing tackles. The secondary, in particular everyone not named Trey Brown, kept missing their coverage assignments. Even punter Aaron Perez refused to kick anything with more than about two seconds of hang time or longer than 30 yards. The coaching “adjustments” that were going to be made at halftime to overturn a 14-6 deficit? Try getting outscored 30-0 in the second half. And to add insult to injury (or is it injury to insult), the team’s top two linemen, Bruce Davis and Shannon Tevaga, both got hurt in the fourth quarter. Start to finish, atrocious in every conceivable way.

Saying the Bruins sucked isn’t even a harsh enough description. On a scale of 1 to 10 of suckiness, it was something like a 5,000. I’m not even sure UCLA could have even beaten Notre Dame on Saturday, and if you’ve been following the walking disaster known as the Fighting Irish, you’ll know how pathetic that is.

Ordinarily, I think it’s foolish to pull a Chicken Little and react so strongly to just one game. Unfortunately, this demoralizing scene from Salt Lake City has become too commonplace to just dismiss it as a fluke. Instead, it confirms the fear that this coaching staff simply doesn’t have what it takes to get the UCLA football program back to elite status. I said last year that Dorrell was running out of chances. He’s out of chances now. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility for the Bruins to rebound from this debacle and have a really good season. But I seriously doubt that anyone who watches the team closely realistically holds on to that belief. More likely it will be just another five-loss season, and hopefully the last with this head coach. Nothing personal Karl, I would really like for you to succeed, but unfortunately we can’t wait forever for you to figure it out. Not that you ever would anyway.

Before the season started, I had been joking about the state of the football program with one of my friends over IM. We were taking our shots at Dorrell while quietly holding out optimism for a good season. My friend made the ultimate insult of comparing Dorrell to loathed Bruin basketball coaching flameout Steve Lavin. While I don’t think that’s an entirely fair comparison, given how greasy and undedicated to the job Lavin was, the results have been eerily similar. Both guys had numerous embarrassing, unprecedented losses, led their teams to generally perform below expectations every year, yet somehow to did just enough to keep their jobs by surprisingly winning a couple of high profile games and having some cosmetic success (in Lavin’s case, his run of Sweet 16 appearances; in Dorrell’s case, the 2005 season and the USC win last year). But while they were allowed to keep their jobs, the programs that they ran were slowly getting run into the ground. And without a drastic move, the football program will continue to flounder.

If I sound pissed, it’s because I am indeed FURIOUS. Sure, football is just a game. And these are just kids. There are many greater injustices in the world happening every day where this ire should be directed. I agree. But it is a personal affront to me and every other person who has invested time, money, and energy into the wonderful institution known as UCLA to have to be associated with such crap. It is insulting to watch people wear the Bruin name and not be prepared and focused, week in and week out. We don’t expect to win every game. We do expect that our players will be put in the best possible position to succeed in football and in life, and carry forth the appropriate amount of effort to make that success a reality.

Last week, I went to an alumni event honoring incoming undergrad scholarship recipients in which legendary softball coach Sue Enquist, part of eleven national champion teams as a player and coach, was the keynote speaker. She exhorted the new students to work to become champions in whatever field they were going into because that’s what it means to be a Bruin. At UCLA, we build champions.

If there’s one thing to be taken away from Utah 44 UCLA 6, it’s that as long as Karl Dorrell is running the show, there will be no champions built on the gridiron. Not just in terms of wins and losses, but in the way the game is approached, the way the game is played. No, Karl wasn’t the one that made all of those mistakes on Saturday. But the disgraceful performance was a direct reflection of the leadership from the top. Or lack thereof.

Anyone know if Ben Howland has a younger brother that coaches football?

AP photos by Douglas C. Pizac and Steve C. Wilson

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Perusing Some Peruvian

2007-09-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 14)

A few years ago, I spent a couple of weeks in Peru. Like most tourists that visit, I backpacked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (which was one of the most spec-TAC-ular things I’ve ever done). But I also had a chance to spend some time in the cities of Cusco and Lima, absorbing the culture with the help of some local friends who provided an insider’s guide of sorts.

One of the things that stuck out to me was the friendliness and welcoming nature of the Peruvian people (which was obviously aided by having locals with us). At all the places we visited, whether restaurants, bars, shops, or street vendors, it seemed everyone made us feel at home; well, other than the guys who mugged my friend outside of a fútbol match at the Estadio Nacional. Although we were thousands of miles away from home, it felt very familiar.

So when I went to Inka Mama’s in Foothill Ranch this past week, I felt like I was revisiting those days in Peru, minus the thieves. Tucked in a typical Orange County strip mall between a Staples and a Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts store, Inka Mama’s doesn’t necessarily replicate an authentic Peruvian dining experience, but does possess an environment in which diners are wholly welcomed and served authentic homestyle dishes.

True to the cultural influences of Peruvian cuisine, which include the ancient Incans, Spanish conquistadors, and more recent Asian immigrants, the restaurant features a thorough menu covering chicken, beef, seafood, and vegetable dishes. Traditional preparation often employs slow-cooking methods like stewing and steaming, which produce tender cuts of meat and retain the flavor of the ingredients, and this is seen in many of the dishes.

I asked my server to pick out one of the house specialties for me, and she pointed me to the cabrito norteño, or stewed lamb. Typically, I do not particularly care for the unique taste that lamb has, but I was willing to give it a try. In this dish, the lamb was cooked in a wine sauce with cilantro and garlic, and topped with lime-marinated red onions. As you can imagine, the distinct flavor of the lamb was somewhat muted against the equally sharp flavors of these other items, creating a highly savory combination, and one that I actually enjoyed eating. The stewing of the lamb resulted in extremely tender meat which practically fell off the bone, though without the texture and structure of the meat breaking down into mush. It also allowed for extremely quick turnaround since the meat had clearly been cooking for a long time in preparation for service. The lamb was served with large side orders of white beans and white rice, perfect for absorbing the sauce.

Of course it wouldn’t have been a Peruvian dinner without a traditional drink. Since I still had a long drive home, a Pisco Sour was out of the question, but I did get myself a glass of chicha morada, the traditional corn-based drink. If you’ve never had it, it has the color of Manischewitz wine, but a thicker consistency closer to cough syrup (though not quite that thick). From that description, it doesn’t sound particularly appealing, but it tastes kind of like fruit punch, except if Kool-Aid used purple corn instead of artificial sweeteners. Trust me, it's yummy. It was a nice refreshing palate cleanser from the robust flavors of my entrée.

Inka Mama’s was started by two immigrant sisters who brought many of their family recipes with them from their homeland. When I was in there, one of the sisters was mingling with the guests, clearly familiar with many of the patrons (both White and Latino) that appeared to be regulars. What I appreciated was the fact that the sisters had purposely tried to cultivate an atmosphere that felt more like dining as a guest in someone’s home, as opposed to being a faceless customer in a restaurant. This was also reflected in the décor of the restaurant; the walls are adorned with Peruvian artifacts and oil paintings representing typical aspects of Peruvian life, while diners eat at simple wooden tables on tile floors.

Since my travel schedule isn’t what it used to be, it’s always nice to be momentarily taken back to the amazing places that I’ve had the opportunity to visit in the past. These Inka Mamas were clearly successful in jarring those memories for me, and for giving others a little taste of place totally worth visiting.

Inka Mama’s also has a second location in Aliso Viejo which opened earlier this year.

Inka Mama’s
26676 Portola Parkway, Suite B
Foothill Ranch, CA 92610

Bruin Recap: Surviving the Attack of the Cougars

2007-09-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 10)

That breeze you felt on Saturday night wasn’t an early Santa Ana wind, but rather the collective sigh of relief of Bruin Nation after UCLA held on for a 27-17 victory over BYU. For those of you that weren’t at the Rose Bowl and didn’t have a chance to watch the game because you aren’t one of the 15 households that actually get Versus, you missed the Bruins sprinting out to a 20-0 lead, then nearly letting it slip away until a late fumble and touchdown drive put it out of reach. It was a game that featured a totally inept offensive performance by the Bruins, but was saved by some big plays by the defense and key mistakes by the Cougars.

In many cases, the stat sheet can be misleading, but in Saturday’s game, it told the whole story. BYU outgained UCLA by a nearly two-to-one margin (435 to 236), and controlled the game for the last 35 minutes. But UCLA was plus-two in the turnover battle (forcing three while only giving up one) and BYU had eleven penalties, many at crucial moments, while UCLA only had four. In short, BYU looked like the better team for much of the game, but in the most critical moments, it was the Bruins that stepped up when it counted. So while many UCLA fans are feeling a bit worried about how the team will fare against the better teams coming up on the schedule, they can be encouraged at the way the team showed some guts by not caving to the pressure of the Cougar comeback.

That isn’t to say that the BYU was a weak opponent. In contrast to last week’s opponent Stanford, whom UCLA clearly outclassed, the Cougars, despite their non-BCS conference affiliation, represented a much stiffer test. They came in riding an 11-game winning streak (including routs of Pac-10 teams Oregon and Arizona in its last two games) and a #27 national ranking. In particular, the Cougars defense provided a formidable challenge, as it was the 10th best scoring defense in the country last year and had extra motivation to prove something to Bruin QB Ben Olson, who had transferred from BYU prior to the 2005 season. Thus, while it was disappointing that the UCLA offense largely failed its test, the fact that the Bruins still found a way to win against a quality team was important.

Since school does not start until late September, home-openers are typically a little less energetic and crowded. Not so this week. More than 70,000 were in attendance at the Rose Bowl, with a large, vociferous contingent of BYU fans that jeered Olson every time he made mistake (which was often). But early on, it was the Bruin fans that were making the noise. A couple of long completions from Olson to Brandon Breazell and Marcus Everett resulted in the longest Bruin drive of the day of 60 yards, setting up a Kai Forbath (who recovered nicely from a shaky debut last week) field goal. Meanwhile, the defense was in full control, limiting the BYU offense to only six first downs in its first eight possessions. The Cougars ran a no-huddle shotgun offense, but appeared a little conservative in their early play-calling, running a lot of draws and misdirection handoffs to slow down the UCLA pass rush, but finding little success against the Bruins’ front seven. After Trey Brown jumped a slant pattern and took it back 56 yards for a pick six at the end of the first quarter, the Rose Bowl was rockin’.

With the defense in top form, and BYU backing itself up with mental mistakes by taking holding and delay of game penalties, the offense was getting outstanding field position, but generally failing to capitalize on it. However, early in the second quarter, the Bruins finally took advantage with a four-play sequence in which Kahlil Bell got the ball and pounded it for 47 yards and eventually a touchdown.

For the second straight week, Bell looked like the superior runner to Chris Markey. While Markey is clearly the more shifty of the two backs, he seemed indecisive, dancing around behind the line of scrimmage waiting for a hole to open up. On the other hand, Bell was in fine downhill running form, making one cut and hitting the hole hard. Bell outgained Markey 79-50 in an equal number of carries, and it was puzzling as to why Karl Dorrell continued to rotate the backs later on in the game when it was clear that Bell was far more effective.

Down 17-0, the Cougars turned the ball over again, this time on a terrific forced fumble by Chris Horton, which led to a second Forbath field goal, and with only three minutes left to play in the first half, it appeared a rout was on. But for the second straight week, the Bruin defense gave up a long drive to close the half. QB Max Hall, making only his second career start, seemed to figure out the soft spots in coverage, completing short dump-offs to running back Manase Tonga and out routes to receiver Austin Collie, an ominous sign of things to come. Fortunately, poor clock management in the red zone caused the Cougars to settle for a field goal. Still, at halftime, while I waited in the concession lines, I saw that the drive had restored some hope for Cougar fans. Despite their huge deficit, their talk was optimistic, believing that their offense was back on track, while their defense seemed to have the Bruin offense neutralized. Clearly, the Bruins had wasted their opportunity to shut the door, not too different then certain games last year.

Although UCLA got the ball first in the second half, they soon punted it back to BYU. This became a familiar refrain. Through the first four drives of the second half, the Bruins only gained 32 total yards and only one first down. Olson was wildly inaccurate all game, missing receivers, and even when completing passes, putting the ball in places that couldn’t allow guys to run with the ball after the catch. Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that he rarely seemed to move off of his primary receiver, and forced balls to guys that were covered. While this year’s passing game appears to require fewer reads, Olson’s decision making still seems slow and faulty a lot of the time. Olson completed virtually nothing downfield, which allowed BYU to bring its safeties up and challenge the run. However, he did make the throws when it counted in the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, the Cougar offense was firing on all cylinders. BYU continued to dink and dunk their way down the field, utilizing tight ends Dennis Pitta and Andrew George against the Bruin safeties on ten-yard routes over the middle, and occasionally beating Brown and Alterraun Verner for quick hitters on the outside. The Cougars scored on an eight-play drive to get their fans fired up, and then on a two-play quick strike after Olson airmailed an interception at midfield (assisted by a questionable no-call pass interference). Unlike last week, when the UCLA defense missed several tackles resulting in big plays, BYU did not break any long gains. Instead, Hall methodically picked apart the Bruins’ secondary for five to ten yards at a time. While the defensive line racked up four sacks and throttled the Cougar running game (only 44 yards rushing), DeWayne Walker’s blitz schemes were largely ineffective against the Cougars’ mammoth offensive line over the last two and a half quarters, particularly after Brigham Harwell went out with a knee injury; Hall routinely had five seconds plus to let his receivers get open. Pass coverage has been pretty solid after two weeks, but the lack of a consistent pass rush has allowed for two big passing days already, with Hall throwing for 391 yards. And it surely didn’t help that the offense didn’t give the defense any time to rest.

At this point, the Bruin fans looked ready for a funeral, while Cougar fans were whooping and high-fiving each other. The annoying BYU fan sitting behind me even stopped complaining about the officiating for a second (according to him, BYU has never committed a penalty in the history of football, and the replay officials in the booth with the slow motion cameras weren’t as accurate as his view from fifty yards away in the stands). There is nothing worse than the road team’s fans celebrating on your home turf.

And then one play changed the game. Midway through the fourth quarter, after another Bruin punt, BYU was in the red zone again, poised to strike a potential fatal blow. Then, Bruce Davis made an All-American play, utilizing a quick rush around the left tackle and blindsiding Hall, causing him to fumble, with the Bruins recovering. The play re-energized the home crowd and stunned the Cougars, who had been dominant for the past hour. It was if at that point, the Bruins woke up and remembered that they were indeed the favorites, the team that was supposed to win.

On the next offensive series, UCLA secured three first downs behind the running of Bell and some short completions by Olson. While the drive stalled around midfield, it gave the defense a breather and pinned BYU’s offense deep in its own end with only a few minutes left on the clock. The Bruin defense forced a three-and-out, and then the offense shut the door with a ten-play touchdown drive featuring Markey and a clutch catch by Gavin Ketchum.

Certainly a lot of work needs to be done to shore up the passing game, which was totally one-dimensional and ineffective. Jay Norvell needs to go back to the drawing board to find some way to get more consistent play out of Olson, especially on third down in more obvious passing situations (UCLA was 2-12 in conversions). The offensive line blocked adequately, but the receivers did not find many openings in the intermediate range with the BYU corners regularly giving the UCLA receivers ten-plus yards of cushion and not needing help over the top from the safeties.

Defensively, Walker must find a way to get more backfield penetration to slow down the opponents’ passing game. While his front seven has been stout against the run, giving up only 48 yards a game, the team has been highly susceptible to the short-passing attack. The defense created some huge turnovers, resulting in ten points, but also couldn’t get off the field in the second half, giving up multiple third-and-long conversions. Although Utah should be an easier matchup with the Utes’ starting quarterback and running back injured, some difficult conference games await in the following weeks in which an up-and-down performance will not be good enough to win.

But at the end of the day, with numerous top-25 teams getting upset, an ugly win was much better than a pretty loss. While the band played “Sons of Westwood” in the background as we exited the Rose Bowl, I turned to my friend (thanks James for the ticket!) with a weak smile, thankful that the dream of a championship survived for at least one more week.

Engineer Jeff leading the cheers

The beautiful Bruin cheerleaders

Victory formation

Let the post game celebration begin

AP photos by Francis Stecker. Non-professional photos from the stands by Ryan Young

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – BBQ in the 'Burbs

2007-09-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 7)

With the holiday weekend and the news that The Pig was closing down, I was in the mood for some barbecue. I wanted that heavy feeling in your stomach that you get when you’ve ingested a whole cow and/or pig, when your fingernails reek of barbecue sauce, and your body yearns for something, anything green.

Of course, finding true Southern-style barbecue is difficult out here. While there certainly is good-tasting barbecue locally, it’s more difficult to reproduce the overall smokehouse environment with sawdust floors, wooden benches, and big-ass cuts of meat served on wax paper with white bread. So I decided to go the opposite direction and cased out The Beach Pit BBQ (and no, it’s not the Peach Pit like BH90210 – that was my first reaction as well) in Costa Mesa. Angel fans will also recognize Beach Pit as the new barbecue concession in right field at the Big A which opened this season. In fact, the restaurant is owned by Tim DeCinces, son of longtime Angel third baseman Doug DeCinces. He’s managed to create a restaurant which I consider California-style barbecue.

What exactly is California-style barbecue? The best way for me to explain it is to describe Beach Pit. On the surface, it certainly qualifies as a BBQ joint, with wood-smoked pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked sausage, and ribs among the available cuts of meat, its own special barbecue sauces, and usual sides like baked beans, slaw, and cornbread on the menu. And unlike most of the rib-centric BBQ restaurants in SoCal, it’s counter service. But then there’s this weird section on the menu for salads and pizzas. Huh, what’s that? And they serve wine?!? Which should be mentioned, is offered at a 25% discount on Thursday nights (as well as a no corkage fee if you BYOB).

The ambience is also an infusion of traditional barbecue and California sensibility. The restaurant itself is a converted house set off from the street, so it is barely noticeable when driving by. It’s got a white picket fence which gates the front yard, with a little playground for kids to run around in. The inside of Beach Pit does have wood floors, but only a few tables – the majority of the seating is actually located outside on the front porch in the form of faux benches, along with a little fire pit that customers can cozy up to in lounge chairs while sipping on their merlot.

Of course, barbecue enthusiasts shouldn’t be scared off; the food is still solid, though not necessarily traditionally prepared. I got myself the “Alabama Slamma”, a three-meat combo plate (my selections: pulled pork, beef brisket, and pork spare ribs) with twelve total ounces of meat, which came with two side dishes (I opted for baked beans and sweet potato fries – more on that later), plus I added on a piece of blueberry cornbread. Now, Beach Pit is not a rib joint, as evidenced by the fact that they have no beef ribs on the menu and only spare ribs and baby back ribs to choose from. Supposedly, it is most well-known for the pulled pork. I was pleasantly surprised at all three of the cuts of meat as far as their tenderness and moistness was concerned. The spare ribs in particular were of the fork and knife variety, practically falling off the bone, which is sacrilege to some, but fine by me. I was hoping for a bit more smoky flavor to the meat, since Beach Pit prides itself on its “blend of wood and spices”; I actually found the pork to be on the bland side when eaten without the sauce. On the other hand, I thought the beef brisket was more zesty; it was my favorite out of the three types of meat.

Good barbecue is as dependent on the quality of sauce as it is the cuts of the meat and the preparation methodology. Beach Pit serves two different sauces, a mild and a spicy. I strongly preferred the mild sauce, which is of medium thickness, slightly sweet – perhaps closest to St. Louis-style (although my BBQ sauce knowledge is admittedly a bit lacking). The spicy sauce was not all that spicy (one of the staffers referred to it as “Newport Beach” spicy), but it was considerably thinner and much heavier on the vinegar, and far less sweet (perhaps Carolina-style). I thought the mild sauce went best with the pork, while the spicy sauce most complemented the beef.

Then there’s the sides. All I need to say is sweet potato fries. Good lord, they were phe-NOM-enal. By far the best thing I tasted all night. The sweet potatoes were julienned, and lightly fried so they retained their natural flavor rather than the oil. They were light and crisp, seasoned with chili powder, and served with (drumroll, please) a side of ranch dressing. The fries on their own are among the best sweet potato fries I’ve ever eaten. But when you throw in the ranch to accompany it, I mean, seriously, what doesn’t go well with ranch? I’m fully convinced that bacon and ranch could quite possibly solve all the world’s problems.

As far as the other sides were concerned, the baked beans were quite good, using a mixture of kidney beans, pinto beans, and navy beans, in a sweeter sauce than either of the barbecue sauces served with the meat. The blueberry cornbread was light and a bit crumbly, but the sweetness of the blueberries was very subtle and a nice palate cleanser from the spicy sauce.

The food is priced a bit on the high side, with lunch plates starting at $9 and dinner plates at $13 for one type of meat and two sides, up to $18 for the Alabama Slamma. The portions of meat are fair, though far smaller than what you’d get at a Texas BBQ, while the sides are served in small cups that could almost be considered garnish. But considering how health-conscious many of us attempt to be in LA, perhaps they’re doing us a favor by not letting us overeat.

If you’re a traditionalist, you may be disappointed that you won't leave feeling that rib-sticking goodness. But as far as I’m concerned, The Beach Pit BBQ provides a nice change-of-pace barbecue experience while still letting me get my meat on.

The Beach Pit BBQ
1676 Tustin Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627

Bruin Recap - So Far, So Good

2007-09-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on September 4)

Since it’s already Tuesday and UCLA’s 45-17 victory over lowly Stanford feels like an eternity ago, we won’t give you any game recap of what was an encouraging, but ultimately difficult to gauge performance. Instead, we’ll stick to observations about the team’s first action and what it means for the next few weeks.

It’s never easy to start the season with a conference road game, even if the opponent is the consensus worst team in the conference. And Stanford has historically given the Bruins some trouble, like two years ago when the Cardinal led undefeated UCLA by 21 points in the fourth quarter at the Farm, only to see Drew Olson stage a furious comeback win. So any victory is a good one, and the convincing nature of this win should give the Bruins some confidence heading into next week’s game against BYU.

Obviously, the million dollar question has been whether the offense can actually put enough points on the board this year to make UCLA a legitimate contender. With a defense that should keep the team in every game, it was up to new offensive coordinator Jay Norvell to develop a scheme that enabled QB Ben Olson and company to move the ball, especially in the red zone where they were horrible last year. For one week, at least, the Bruins offense was highly productive, racking up 624 yards and 45 points, which were better numbers than any game last year, admittedly against a porous Stanford defense. But what was more encouraging than the raw numbers was the way in which UCLA accumulated those statistics.

One of the things Norvell sought to change with this year’s offense was to get the ball outside to the wide receivers. Running back Chris Markey led the team in receptions a year ago, and the Bruin passing game was generally station-to-station; very few yards after catch, and very few opportunities for the primary playmakers to make plays in the open field. In Saturday’s game, the Bruins ran several slip screens and bubble screens which not only got the ball to receivers on the move, but also neutralized some of the aggressive Stanford pass rush. It was slip screens that produced Joe Cowan’s 78-yard touchdown catch and run, as well as Brandon Breazell’s 15-yard touchdown. The Bruins also used fade routes with frequent success, allowing their taller receivers to make a play on the ball against Stanford’s smaller cornerbacks. It was refreshing to see Bruin wideouts with eleven catches and backs with only two. Hopefully, Norvell will open up the offense even more in the coming weeks.

Another notable adjustment was the more liberal use of the shotgun, particularly on third down. Last season, Olson took a number of sacks because he wasn’t able to read defenses quickly enough and work through his progressions (and wasn’t mobile enough to avoid the pass rush). By utilizing shotgun, Olson was able to see the field better and had a little extra time to unload the ball. Norvell’s playcalling also seemed to reduce the number of reads that Olson had to make, thereby taking some of the decision making out of the quarterback’s hands. So while Olson wasn’t super accurate, especially in the first half, he didn’t make any critical errors that crippled the offense. Any time you have a 5 TD/0 int day, you’ve done your job.

The Bruin running game was very impressive with 338 yards. In particular, Kahlil Bell, who was MIA last year, ran like a man possessed, rarely going down after first contact, and hitting the holes decisively to the tune of 195 yards. Even though starter Markey did not seem particularly explosive, having two backs that can be effective could be a boon for the team down the road. Even recently-converted safety Christian Ramirez looked like a contributor, showing some explosiveness during a late-game scoring drive. The team found repeated success running behind Micah Kia and Shannon Tevaga on the left side, utilizing a single-back, double tight end set which we didn’t see much of last year, probably the result of the injury to fullback Michael Pitre. There was nothing fancy about the way they ran it – simple offtackle and smash plays – but Stanford couldn’t stop it. It certainly won’t be this easy all year, but if the o-line is generally able to control the line of scrimmage, it will wear down opposing defenses and open up big-play opportunities in the passing game like the third-quarter flea-flicker to Breazell. Last season, the running game was not consistent enough to make this a credible threat.

If the offense was a pleasant surprise, the defense was a bit of a disappointment. With Stanford bringing in an entirely new coaching staff, led by Jim Harbaugh, the defense was at a disadvantage with little game film to study. Nevertheless, giving up 331 passing yards to an offense that barely averaged ten points a game last year did not live up to expectations. In particular, it was three big plays that accounted for close to half of those yards, one on a blown coverage by Alterraun Verner that resulted in a 70-yard stop and go touchdown reception, and two on poor tackling on underneath routes that led to long gains. Certainly, this will be an area of focus during practice this week.

DeWayne Walker stuck to his aggressive playcalling, bringing blitzes which forced the game’s only turnover (Trey Brown’s first quarter strip and sack of TC Ostrander on a corner blitz), but in general, the pass rush did not generate much pressure, including preseason all-Pac 10 DE Bruce Davis. While the pass coverage was generally strong, especially Brown at left corner, against teams like Cal and USC with significantly better wideouts, the Bruins front seven will need to make more plays so that top QBs can’t pick apart the secondary. That being said, the d-line was strong against the run, giving up only 52 yards, pretty much forcing Stanford to rely exclusively on the passing game.

New placekicker Kai Forbath got off to a rocky start, missing a 28-yard field goal in the first series, and later a 42-yard effort as well, but did manage to kick a 39-yarder through the uprights. The Bruins were spoiled by the reliability of All-American Justin Medlock, but Forbath’s struggles could actually be a blessing in disguise. I always felt that the offensive playcalling got super conservative in the red zone last year under Jim Svoboda in part because three points were in the bag. Forbath’s inconsistency, while clearly not a benefit to the team in the long run, may force Karl Dorrell to show some balls and actually go for it on fourth down for a change, or at the very least, be more aggressive in trying to score touchdowns. Forbath did show plenty of leg, so I feel confident that as he matures over the course of the season (and the next three years), he’ll be solid.

All in all, Bruin fans should be hopeful about what they saw in week one. This week’s home opener against BYU, who had a surprisingly easy time against Arizona, should provide a much better barometer as to how improved the Bruins truly are. But overall, a solid, though not dominant performance, and a 28-point win is a step in the right direction. It certainly could have been worse – just ask Michigan.

AP photos by Paul Sakuma

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Life of Pie

2007-08-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 31)

Everybody has one fatal weakness. For Superman, it’s kryptonite. For R. Kelly, it’s teenage girls. For me, it’s pie.

It can be any type of pie, really, it doesn’t matter. The American classic apple. The Southern special sweet potato. The light and fluffy lemon meringue. Yum. Yum. Yum.

However, it’s not just dessert pies that get me going. I am also a huge fan of chicken pot pies. I always used to order it when we’d have a family dinner out at one of those homestyle American restaurants. And I would make sure to ask for those frozen Marie Callendar’s pot pies on the grocery list. Chicken, vegetables, gravy, and pie crust – what’s not to love? It’s really the crust that stokes my fire. Buttery, flaky tastiness.

So when I stumbled across La Palma Chicken Pie Shop in Anaheim, I was excited. Here’s a place that advertises its pies in its name, so while you don’t necessarily know how good the pies are, you know that the restaurant makes its living off of its pies. How could I not be a fan?

From the moment you first see the googie, half-lit neon sign off in the distance, you know that something is different about the restaurant. Indeed, La Palma Chicken Pie Shop is an anachronism, a place that is so old school, it pre-dates retro. It’s a diner-style restaurant, but the puke brown colored décor and vinyl booths are so old, it makes House of Pies in Los Feliz look modern. Literally, it looks like a restaurant that was pulled straight off of Leave it to Beaver. And like the interior, the wait staff doesn’t appear to have changed for the last 40 years. True to form, the store is shut down on Sundays and closes at 8 pm on every other night.

At the same time, the menus and food also appear to be similar to how it used to be more than 50 years ago when the restaurant first opened. La Palma Chicken Pie Shop is an institution in Anaheim, in part because while you’re filling up your jalopy with a $3 gallon of gas, a chicken pie a la carte will only cost you $3.25. A hamburger and fries costs $3.95, about the same as what you'd pay for a Big Mac meal. Other menu items include chicken giblets, liver and onions, and filet of sole; basically, your classic diner dishes. The dinner plates cost less than $7, and come with an entrée, soup and salad, potatoes, and dessert. And not just any dessert. Besides pie and ice cream, they also serve pudding and jello! Dude, jello!

Still, reasonable prices don’t necessarily equate to a worthwhile meal if the food stinks. Thankfully, the food does not stink. The trademark chicken pies are individual-sized, about four inches in diameter, like the size of one of those giant muffins from Costco. But don’t be fooled by their small size; these pies are actually quite hearty. Unlike pot pies you’ll get at most restaurants, which are mostly sauce and vegetables with little hunks of chicken, La Palma’s chicken pies are just what they say they are. Chicken pies. It’s literally huge, tender strips of chicken surrounded by crust. Yes, there’s sauce in there as well, but don’t go in expecting a liquidy stew with crust on the outside. Interestingly enough, you also won’t see any carrots or peas or onions or any other kind of vegetable that you would normally find in a pot pie. Not that they’re not there; supposedly, the vegetables are ground up into the sauce to maintain the flavor of the dish, which also allows additional room for more chicken. As far as my beloved crust is concerned, it’s definitely not the flaky, light pastry crust that you’ll find on some pies. Instead, it’s a doughy, heavier crust which is more consistent with the denseness of the filling. It feels like the kind of crust that comes from a homemade recipe, as opposed to a gourmet chef.

The restaurant also has an ample bakery where the scores of chicken pies are prepared, and you can purchase numerous types of pastries and deli items, as well as place your takeout orders. The chicken noodle soup is a meal in and of itself, with a ridiculously thick broth (which borders on gravy) accompanying big hunks of chicken and long strips of egg noodles. Pints to go cost only $1.80, and a full quart is only $3.25, which will be sufficient to coat your stomach for an entire winter.

And lest we forget about dessert (this is a pie shop after all), the pies are a solid finish to the meal (if you aren’t already pie’d out). In contrast to the pie crust from the chicken pies, the dessert pie crust is lighter, dusted with egg for the golden finish, and sprinkled with sugar like a pie should be, for that hint of sweetness. I had the peach pie, which contained pretty conventional sliced peaches and glaze (definitely not of the same caliber as a fresh peach pie).

No one is going to mistake La Palma Chicken Pie Shop for being revolutionary. That’s why it’s beloved – every once in awhile, people need comfort food to be reminded that in our crazy mixed-up world, not everything has to change. Especially pie.

La Palma Chicken Pie Shop
928 N. Euclid Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92801

UCLA Football Season Preview

2007-08-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 29)
(Featured in UCLA Magazine on August 30)

Lately, being a UCLA football fan has required an extraordinary amount of patience and persistence. Every year, the Bruin faithful summon up the courage to believe that this year will be the breakthrough that we’ve been waiting for. And for most of the past ten years, we’ve been teased. Like a Michael Bay movie, we keep buying a ticket foolishly holding out hope that this time it will be good, even though deep down we know at the end of the day all we’re going to see are a bunch of things blowing up.

I L-O-V-E all things UCLA. I’ve been spending Saturdays at the Rose Bowl for nearly 20 years, lived my undergrad years in Westwood, use the term ‘Bruin’ in most of my online handles, and drive around in a blue car with a blue alumni plate on it. I hate anything to do with USC, even to the extent that I refused to even consider going to USC for grad school because I thought the mere name would sully my resume. I am as passionate a fan as you will find.

(Before all of you SC fans decide to flame me and say how phenomenally awesome your football program is, let me acknowledge that I have begrudging respect for the SC program based on its tradition and its recent run of success under Pete Carroll, so I will not take any digs at the hated Trojans. If however you decide to start talking smack, I will be forced to respond with endless reminders of ’13-9’, ‘First to 100’, and ’11 NCAA basketball titles’.)

But while I may not be a totally rational fan, I am a reasonable fan. Which is why I enter this football season with great trepidation, despite the fact that expectations are very high.

Henry posted a few weeks ago how excited he was about the prospects of the Bruins’ season, with our twenty returning starters and stellar defense. I wish I could say I shared his enthusiasm, truly believing that the team will run the table and be sitting at 11-0 heading into Rivalry Week. On paper, this team has a ton of talent, worthy of its #14 ranking, a reasonable schedule, and a legitimate expectation to finish at least second in the Pac-10. The team has the most experience of anyone in the conference, with as many as eighteen senior starters. I really want to be optimistic. But let’s just say that through all of the years of following the program, and in particular after watching UCLA during the Dorrell era, I’m a little skeptical.

In my view, it’s a pretty simple gauge as to whether optimists or the skeptics will be vindicated. The season hangs on two simple words.

Ben. Olson.

For those of you not in the know, Olson is the 24-year old junior starting quarterback for the Bruins. Touted as the number one QB prospect coming out of high school, he transferred to UCLA from BYU after one season and two years on an LDS mission. When it was announced that he was coming to Westwood, the buzz within Bruin Nation was tremendous. He was going to be the savior of the program. And after a first game performance against Utah last season when he threw for over 300 yards, he was being anointed as the ‘Southpaw Jesus’. But the sensational debut proved to be his high point of the season, with inconsistent performances and a season-ending knee injury in early October marring what was supposed to be a coronation.

Generally, I hate overemphasizing the quarterback position. It gets all of the glory and deemphasizes the importance of the other 21 guys on the field. However, it is not hard to look at the recent history of the Bruins and notice the correlation between the inconsistent on-field performances and the inconsistent play at the QB spot. Since Bruin legend Cade McNown graduated in 1998, the position has been held by luminaries such as Drew Bennett (who was so bad he moved to WR), Ryan McCann, Cory Paus, Matt Moore, and Drew Olson. Not exactly going to stir up the echoes of Troy Aikman with that list (though Drew Olson had a pretty phenomenal year in 2005).

The reason I bring up the quarterback issue is the fact that the offense pretty much sucked last season. Let’s face it, UCLA is not traditionally known for its defensive prowess, so the fact that the defense was so solid – especially the defensive line – was a revelation. And yet, the team ended up a mediocre 7-6 because it couldn’t score any points. Sure the stats look respectable. But for the most part, the offense suffered from a line that couldn’t create any holes for Chris Markey, the total absence of a vertical threat and red zone playmaker, and horribly unimaginative playcalling (yo, Svoboda, this isn’t Tecmo Bowl, you can run more than four plays). There was a reason Justin Medlock led the country in field goals.

Which leads us back to the quarterback. A quarterback is to an extent limited by the weapons around him. At the same time, a great quarterback is the one guy who can elevate the level of his teammates by virtue of his abilities. And no knock to Ben Olson or Pat Cowan, who played admirably as Ben’s replacement, but there was nothing great about their play last year. It was average. And average doesn’t get you ten-win seasons and BCS bowl appearances like what the Bruins aspire to this year.

The defense should be excellent again this year. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker has an aggressive scheme that capitalizes on the Bruins’ team speed, with monsters like Bruce Davis and Brigham Harwell upfront, Reggie Carter at the Will linebacker, and Trey Brown and Chris Horton in the secondary. It looks so excellent, in fact, that it completely pwned (yes, I used the term pwned) the offense during spring and fall practices. And therein lies the big question mark. Can the offense, with a new coordinator in Jay Norvell, open it up and score points consistently? Will the big nasties like Shannon Tevaga and Chris Joseph actually push somebody off the ball this year? Can a guy like speedster Terrence Austin stretch the field? Or is it going to be another season of three-and-outs and drives stalling at the 20? Because if those field goals start turning into touchdowns this year, it could be one helluva season.

The one person that controls this more than anyone is of course Ben Olson. If he’s able to fulfill the immense promise that was projected for him six years ago, he can lead the team to the promised land (no, this isn’t just a recap of Necessary Roughness). But with Cowan out for most of the season with a hamstring tear suffered last week, if Ben doesn’t step up, there is no backup plan.

For much-maligned coach Karl Dorrell, it’s his Degree all-in moment. Although he has a stellar recruiting class coming in next season (currently #2 by both Rivals and Scout), if he can’t win at least nine games with this roster, it’s not ever going to happen, especially considering how much they will lose next year. You can count me in the camp of those that like Karl the man, but are not impressed with Karl the coach and his conservative, play-not-to-lose style. I riffed on the state of the program last season during their abysmal four-game losing streak, and all of that still holds true. Enough with the inconsistency. We’re tired of being an also-ran. Time to go big or go home, Karl.

I was watching last year’s UCLA-USC game on DVR the other day, and after the Trojans’ last-second Hail Mary attempt fell incomplete, Brent Musberger made the comment about how the ‘gutty little Bruins’ rose up to pull off the colossal upset. It was meant entirely as a compliment, but any longtime fan that has seen the program in its better days felt indignant, rather than affirmed. How the hell have we fallen so far to be viewed as ‘gutty little Bruins’, as if we have no business competing with ‘mighty’ USC, a David slaying Goliath? This is freakin’ UCLA, not San Jose St (no diss to the Spartans). We’re not some little directional school in some po-dunk town, we should be good every effing year. I’m not saying compete for national championships every year as they expect at Heritage Hall (though I expect that for us in basketball), but I mean a lot more than just winning seven or eight games.

This is the season that will define which direction the program heads. A regular player on the national scene amongst the Goliaths once again, or just an occasional blip on the radar with the Davids. Whether future autumns will be full of tailgates and 8-claps, or just a distraction until the beginning of basketball season. Ben Olson, it’s up to you.

No pressure or anything.

The Bruins open the season on Saturday in Palo Alto against Stanford at 12:30 pm (PRIME).

AP photo by Danny Moloshek

Malibu v 2.0

2007-08-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 23)

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post celebrating the return of American Gladiators reruns to ESPN Classic. Now, word is that NBC is going one step further, reviving the athletic game show for sometime next season. The Variety article states that:

The competition skein -- which featured players with names like Nitro, Turbo and Laser in its campy, early '90s syndie incarnation -- will be updated for the 21st century with new technology and twists.

So what “technology and twists” could possibly be in store? There’s only so much you can do with events like Powerball and Joust, although the Eliminator could definitely be revamped to incorporate some more difficult challenges, a la Viking: the Ultimate Obstacle Course. Personally, I would love to see them integrate some of the ridiculous games that they have on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. We’re one step closer to the fulfillment of The Running Man.

It will be interesting to see how NBC will seek to position the show. The original focused on the personalities of the gladiators when it first went on the air, giving it a slightly-less serious tone, but seemed to lose some of its appeal when it became too focused on trying to be a wholly legitimate athletic competition. With the market totally saturated for both sports programming and reality game shows, trying to capture and retain viewers mindshare is a tricky enterprise, so whatever the producers come up with had better be a truly untapped niche like Fear Factor once grabbed.

Since nostalgia programming seems to be where it’s at these days with the suits at the TV stations and movie studios, I would also like to suggest a revival of MacGyver starring Emilio Estevez in a mullet. I mean, if Kiefer Sutherland can reinvent himself as a bad-ass action hero, then surely his Young Guns co-star can become a cerebral do-gooder.

Get Your Fix On

2007-08-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 17)

Are you an aspiring foodie without the bankroll to sample some of the city’s culinary treasures? Now you’ve got no excuses. Over the next two weeks, two big opportunities will be taking place in the Southland to allow yourself to indulge with a little less guilt.

S. Pellegrino is beginning its 6th annual Dine Out America program on Sunday, August 19th, lasting through the 30th. For a $25 lunch or $35 dinner, you’ll get a three-course meal from some of the most highly regarded restaurants in LA like Lucques, Chinois on Main, and Crustacean. The water company is also donating $1 for every meal served during the program to Share Our Strength, a nonprofit seeking to reduce hunger in America. Watch the fine print, though; the program is only Sunday through Thursday, and some of the restaurants are serving one meal but not the other. For the complete list of the 27 LA restaurants and 20 OC restaurants participating, click here.

Meanwhile, South Coast Plaza is celebrating its 40th anniversary by running a week-long culinary extravaganza from Monday, August 20th through the 26th. During the seven days, the top restaurants in the South Coast Metro area will be offering a four-course prix fixe meal for $40. Participating restaurants include Pinot Provence and Turner New Zealand. Proposed menus can be found on the events section of the website.

Happy eating!

Flickr photo by Riz Ainuddin

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Breaking the Fusion Stereotype

2007-08-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 17)

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line.

I’m prejudiced.

You mention the words “fusion cuisine” and I immediately reach for stereotypes. Pretentious. Overpriced. Lacking any culinary soul. Just altogether unappealing.

Oh sure I’ve had good fusion meals once in awhile. But I’d never admit to it. I wouldn’t want to acknowledge that my taste buds had been denigrated by such nefarious food.

So it took every ounce of willpower to force myself to walk through the door of Café Hiro in Cypress and stay for a meal without turning around and leaving in disgust. Fusion of Asian, French, and Italian? How can this be any good?

And yet, slowly it won me over. The restaurant was simple, no ornate décor with scented candles (yes, what exactly was Dale from Top Chef thinking), just a handful of wooden tables and some random pieces of art that looked like they could have been purchased at Goodwill. A ceiling painted with like the sky, a la the Forum Shops at Caesars. A diverse menu with very recognizable ingredients, except integrated into unconventional combinations like spaghetti and plum paste or Hamburg steak and curry. And very reasonable prices, with most entrees under $15 and coming with both soup and salad. Maybe this could work.

Then I noticed the heavy Japanese-speaking clientele in the restaurant, in particular folks having long been eligible for Social Security. I think there was only one other table out of eight that was actually speaking English. I thought how unusual it was for a fusion restaurant to have a loyal following amongst an older non-native crowd, even though the servers were all Japanese and bantered pleasantly with the customers. If it’s good enough for them, it can't be terrible, right?

I plowed through my first two courses, a pleasant green salad with a Japanese-ginger dressing, and a surprising cream of potato soup that was rich but with the right consistency and just enough parsley to give it that extra flavor. The dishes were plated nicely, yet on these simple but multi-colored and patterned plates.

And then I got my main dish. I knew from the minute I saw it on the menu that it was my destiny. Sauteed shrimp with sea urchin risotto. As all of the no-talent hacks demonstrated on Hell’s Kitchen this season, risotto can be a tricky dish to prepare. So when I took my first bite, I knew that maybe things could be different with me and fusion.

Cooked with a hint of cheese and with mushrooms, and served with a light tomato and cream sauce, the risotto was full of all kinds of great flavors with a nice level of thickness. On the one hand, you had the slight sweet and richness of the uni. Then you had the acidity of the tomato. And then of course there’s all of the shrimpy goodness, which while not as universally awesome as bacon, almost always works well. I actually thought the mushrooms distracted the overall flavor of the dish a bit. But in spite of that, the ingredients came together so nicely with the cheese as the finishing kick on the palate. Furthermore, it was cooked at the proper timing to give the rice just the right amount of firmness.

Sigh. It was yummy. I can’t believe I’ll say it, but I’m a fan.

I don’t know that I’m ready to say that I’m a total fusion convert yet. At the very least, Café Hiro showed me that not all fusion places are the same. So now I’m trying to readjust my ways of thinking. However, change takes time. But if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change…

Café Hiro
10509 Valley View St.
Cypress, CA 90630

The Neighborhood Project: Chinatown

2007-08-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 14)
(Featured on Curbed LA and Neighbors Project on August 14)

Although Chinatown is no longer a hub of activity relative to other parts of Los Angeles, it contains significant portions of the cultural history of the city within its tiny one-square-mile boundaries. It has served as the gatekeeper to America for many generations of immigrant groups, not only from China but from all over the world. It’s been a launching pad for all of the true believers that clung to the promise of a new life in the land of opportunity. Today, you can hear the echoes of these stories, and the underlying heritage of the lives that were left behind, reverberate throughout the community. Far more than just a novelty, Chinatown is a reflection of many of the things that, for better or worse, give LA its true identity beyond the postcard images and the glitz and glamour that the rest of the world projects on to it.

Boundaries: Officially, the boundaries are Bernard St. to the north, Cesar Chavez Ave. to the south, North Main St. to the east, and Yale St. to the west. However, this really comprises more of the commercial district of Chinatown; the residential community extends out past Yale across the 110 to the hills below Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park, out to Beaudry St. (as noted by the fact that the street signs are still in Chinese that far west). For the purposes of the Neighborhood Project, we are restricting it to the commercial district.

Politics:

LA City Council District 1, represented by Councilman Ed Reyes

LA County District 1, represented by Supervisor Gloria Molina

California Senate District 21, represented by state Senator Jack Scott

California State Assembly District 45, represented by Assemblyman Kevin de Leon

US Congressional District 34, represented by Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard

Public Transit: Because of its proximity to Union Station, Chinatown is accessible by virtually any mode of transportation with a short walk. If you're too lazy to walk a few blocks, the Gold Line's Chinatown station dumps you at Spring St. and College St., and the DASH-B (Downtown Discovery on weekends) and Lincoln Heights/Chinatown line go directly through the heart of the neighborhood. Several MTA buses make stops in Chinatown as well.

The pagoda-shaped Chinatown Metro station

Freeway Access: 110 (Hill St. exit), 101 (Alameda St., Spring St.)

Usually considered: Chinatown

People who front say they live in: Downtown, Elysian Park

Population and Demographics: 9,029, according to LA Almanac from the 2000 census, but many thousands more if you include the Chinatown adjacent areas. Interestingly enough, Chinatown had been a haven of multiculturalism during the 80s and 90s, drawing not only from Asian populations, but also significantly from Latino and African-American populations. More recently, the area has once again become more predominately Asian, although a sizable number of Latinos still inhabit the community.

One of the many multilingual signs throughout Chinatown, reflecting the diversity of the neighborhood and the city as a whole

We tried to get rid of them but they just wouldn’t leave
The first Chinese immigrants to Los Angeles established their community in the area where the El Pueblo Historical Monument and Union Station currently exist during the 1850s after the Gold Rush. They were predominately male laborers, escaping the poor economic conditions in China to make money to send home to their families. Within this same area, numerous immigrants from Mexico (celebrated through Olvera St.), Italy (celebrated through Italian Hall at El Pueblo), and France also settled and built their own little cultural enclaves during the mid- to late-1800s.

However, significant discriminatory laws aimed at curtailing the presence of the Chinese had a hugely detrimental effect on the community. In 1882, the government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which, through subsequent amendments, effectively banned all immigration of ethnic Chinese (not only from China but from any country) and prevented any existing immigrants from having the right to naturalize (the act itself wasn’t lifted until 1943, and immigration restrictions weren’t fully removed until 1965; even the 1943 action came as a byproduct of China siding with the Allies in World War II and the US instead focusing its attention on the Japanese “threat” by seizing Japanese-Americans and dumping them in internment camps). For obvious reasons, this policy severely restricted the growth of the Chinese-American community since workers could not bring over their families from back home. Further laws prohibited Chinese from owning the land they lived and worked on, hampering efforts to expand businesses. These statutes served as a catalyst for the deterioration of Old Chinatown beginning in the early 1900s.

In 1931, the city made the decision to demolish old Chinatown to build Union Station. The residents that still remained were displaced, since it wasn’t until 1937 when relocation plans were finally executed on to build New Chinatown (the current location) and China City (adjacent to El Pueblo, between Spring and Main St., which was destroyed in the 1950s). Despite these obstacles, Chinatown re-emerged as a cultural center for Chinese.

The history of local-area Chinese-Americans is captured at the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California on Bernard St. As a side note, while El Pueblo is deserving of its own post because of its own unique place in Los Angeles history (in particular Mexican-American history), it should be mentioned that the Garnier building, which held many of Old Chinatown's most important social and commercial organizations and currently houses the Chinese American Museum, is situated within the monument’s grounds off of Los Angeles St.

Thanks, but no thanks. We'll let someone else have it
Although the construction of New Chinatown fostered a new era for the Chinese with the return of new residents, merchants, and tourists, many Chinese migrated out to the suburbs (most notably in the San Gabriel Valley) once the restrictions on land ownership and use were removed. This trend became particularly pronounced after 1965 once immigration laws were reset and wealthier immigrants began to arrive by the thousand. Thus, in the current day, cities like Monterey Park and Alhambra function as de facto Chinatowns. In place of the Chinese, many immigrants from Southeast Asia, in particular Vietnam and Cambodia, effectively replaced those that left Chinatown behind for greener pastures. As such, Chinatown can be roughly bisected into two halves by College St., with primarily older Chinese businesses to the north, and a significant percentage of Southeast Asian businesses to the south.

Chinatown Phuoc Loc Tho Center on Spring is one of the shopping centers featuring numerous Vietnamese merchants

Don’t forget about us, we were here too
Although Italians were prominent in the area well into the 1900s, the Little Italy that was once there is all but vanished. Little Joe’s Restaurant on Broadway and College, which closed in 1998, was the last connection to the Italian-owned businesses in Chinatown. The building is still there, but the restaurant is now used sporadically as a film set.

The legacy of the French in Chinatown is seen through the Pacific Alliance Medical Center on College, as noted by the Joan of Arc statue which stands guard in front. It was originally built in 1868 as a hospital to treat French immigrants, but has over time served as the primary medical facility for Chinatown residents.

left: Don't mess with Dr. Joan

below: This just looks like the kind of place Fat Tony would love

A look at the East through the eyes of the West
New Chinatown was originally designed in part by set designers from Hollywood, who sought to heighten the sense of "Chineseness" (or at least the perception of Chineseness) to make it appealing to attract tourists. Thus, the architecture was highly stylized and exaggerated. Today, many of these original structures remain. Central Plaza, between Broadway and Hill St., was the focal point of this neo-Chinese architecture, with buildings constructed to resemble pagodas of different bright, pastel colors, and bookended by two gates with tiered roofs and neon signs. Central Plaza is still the hub of Chinatown for visitors, with a combination of bars, restaurants, specialty shops, and street vendors hawking trinkets and jewelry. Most prominent neighborhood events, such as the Chinese New Year celebrations, are usually held in the plaza square.

It's not exactly the Forbidden City, but Central Plaza retains some hint of the motherland

Looking into Central Plaza from the back, you can see that the founders thought it would be clever to name the area "Chinatownland" as if it were an amusement park of sorts; no truth to the rumor that Disneyland nearly opened a Chinatownland in Anaheim, featuring Mr. Toad's Wild Rickshaw Ride and the Haunted Pagoda

Across Hill, West Plaza was designed with a similar motif, attached to a narrow alley (Chung King Rd.) of curio and antique stores and lined with dozens of red lanterns. In recent years, the plaza showed signs of gentrification, with numerous art galleries replacing the struggling stores which couldn’t stay in business. At its apex, Chung King was a destination spot for hipsters frequenting the numerous gallery openings and exhibitions. These days, however, the scene has died down a bit, so while the galleries are still around and Saturday night shows still run, it’s more likely that you’ll see tumbleweeds flying through the alley than patrons. Still, some remnants of the past have endured. The F. See On store referenced in Lisa See’s On Gold Mountain (one of the best books about the Chinese-American experience in LA) is located in West Plaza and is the oldest continuing Chinese enterprise in the city going back to 1878.

right: an example of one of the gift shops-turned-art galleries with the original signage still in place

below: Chung King Road, minus any customers

F. See On store, now well into its second century of operation

Our special of the day is mu shu pork infused with the essence of Jackie Chan
Although the Hollywood-influenced construction of New Chinatown caricatured Chinese culture in some ways, many businesses are still dependent on the tourists that it helped bring in, as well as the many movies and TV shows which are filmed in the area. However, few places attempt to capitalize on this as shamelessly as Foo Chow Restaurant on Hill, where scenes from Rush Hour were filmed. “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” Yes, but I don’t understand the poor grammar that they have on this mural.

If they’re not going to look out for us, we’ll take care of each other
As is common within Asian cultures, Chinese immigrants tended to work together to protect each other’s interests. These efforts took the form of family or benevolent associations. Associations provided a unified voice for the political needs of the Chinese people and their businesses, but also provided a safe haven to gather, creating a sense of home and community in a country that was largely hostile to them. Despite the fact that overt institutional discrimination has been mostly eradicated today, these associations still exist as a congregating center, particularly for older Chinese. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, formed in 1890, was the original umbrella organization for all of the individual groups and is now located adjacent to Central Plaza on Broadway. You’ll see associations dotted throughout Chinatown, with newer ones representing more recent immigrants from other parts of China and Southeast Asia.

One example of a still-active benevolent association and some of its older members

That being said, the removal of discriminatory laws wasn’t a panacea for the challenges of assimilation. For example, Chinese still struggled to gain access to funds to help grow businesses and purchase property. Thus, they began forming their own banks to address this need. Cathay Bank was the first Chinese-American bank in California, opening in 1962 at Broadway and Alpine St. as a commercial bank, and is now the oldest Chinese-American bank in the country. Since then, several more Chinese-American banks have opened in the greater LA-area. Incidentally, the founder of Cathay Bank, F. Chow Chan, was well-established in the community as the owner of the venerable Phoenix Bakery, another institution in Chinatown.

The original branch of Cathay Bank

In case you forgot, one more reminder that Sweet Lady Jane still sucks
Speaking of Phoenix Bakery, it possesses some of the finest sweets (both traditional Chinese and Western) in the city. And they won’t treat you like a second-class citizen when you go in to sample cakes, either. Located at the north end of Chinatown on Broadway, and still run by the Chan family after 69 years, Phoenix has an oft-copied cake (a super-light sponge cake with whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and slivered almonds) that is far superior to anything at certain more esteemed bakeries. Virtually every LA-area Chinese wedding reception will serve this cake or some derivative of it. For the new-school bakery crowd, Wonder Bakery in Central Plaza offers many tasty treats and boba tea drinks, with a mouth-watering aroma that wafts out into the plaza square.

Seriously, the cake is unbelievable

Come for the baked goods, stay for the fresh foods
Chinatown is also a great place to buy fresh poultry. And by fresh, I don’t mean going to the supermarket and getting meat from the butcher counter fresh, I mean actual live chickens. Animal-lovers probably won’t enjoy the fact that birds are, um, decommissioned on premise, but you’re not going to find a better bird to cook with anywhere. Superior Poultry on Broadway is the most well-known of the poultry markets; besides chicken, they also sell other types of meat like rabbits and quail.

Superior Poultry is a great place to get a chicken for dinner, as long as you can hold your dinner down while they get your chicken ready

If aquatic creatures are more your thing, you can also find live fish and seafood ready for the picking at certain markets as well. Although if I were one of these fish, I’m thinking I’d probably want to be eaten just so I wouldn’t have to live in these grimy tanks any more.

On the other hand, don’t come for the chicken’s feet
One of the unfortunate side effects to the Chinese migration out to the San Gabriel Valley was that seemingly all of the good food went with them. Thus, I can’t consciously endorse any of the restaurants in Chinatown given that much better authentic Chinese food in much greater quantities can be found another 15 minutes to the east (or in the case of Vietnamese food, 45 minutes to the south in Little Saigon).

But if it’s truly too inconvenient to make the trip to the SGV, there are a lot of eating options in Chinatown, and depending on whom you talk to, you’ll get a different answer about which restaurants are best. Since many folks come to Chinatown in search of dim sum, be forewarned that while Empress Pavilion in Bamboo Plaza and Ocean Seafood on Hill garner the most acclaim because of their elegant décor, they’re also uber-crowded (particularly Empress, it’s like eating on the floor of the NYSE) – you can get reasonably comparable food at ABC Seafood on New High St. and Ord St. or at CBS Seafood on Spring and Ord with considerably fewer hassles. I've also found Hop Li on Alpine to be a decently reliable option for an authentic meal.

It rates well with guides like Citysearch and Zagat, but locals know to steer clear of Empress Pavilion

On the opposite end of the culinary spectrum, the Americanized cuisine at Yang Chow with its trademark slippery shrimp or Plum Tree Inn (both on Broadway) attracts a faithful following though the dishes are largely stripped of their authenticity. From the many Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown, Pho 97 in Far East Plaza is the most notable. And if you’re in the mood for something slightly less conventional, you can stop by New Battambang Restaurant on New High for Cambodian cuisine or Asian Noodles on Spring for Filipino food. One thing’s for certain, you will get the same terrible service at any restaurant in Chinatown as you would in SGV.

There aren't usually many Chinese patrons in Yang Chow, but there is a framed picture of Tommy Lasorda in there so that's worth something

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
The widely popular Sam Woo Restaurant, which has locations all over Southern California, had its first location in Chinatown in 1979. While there is still a Sam Woo BBQ restaurant in Chinatown, beware – some of its branches were sold off and turned into fakers like San Woo Bar-B-Que and Sum Wu Seafood Restaurant in Far East Plaza. These are not the same (but give the new owners credit for trying to trick you into thinking otherwise)! It’s part of the Chinese way: practicality over originality. For further evidence, stop by a video store and check out all of the kung fu titles starring Bruce Le, Bruce Li, and Bruce Lai.

If you can't beat 'em, be 'em (or buy them out and pretend to be them)

Well, maybe not every restaurant is forgettable
Although decidedly un-Chinese, the hands-down best place to eat at in Chinatown is Philippe the Original, the 99-year old restaurant on Alameda and Ord, which claims to be the originator of the French Dip sandwich. True, it doesn’t exactly blend into its surroundings, but it’s been a fixture in its location since 1951 as Chinatown was being built up around it. According to the restaurant, the sandwich was created when deli owner Philippe Mathieu accidentally dropped a roll into meat drippings while making a sandwich. Now, the legendary sandwiches are hand-dipped in au jus (the pork are the best), while the little quirks of the restaurant like the sawdust on the floors and the jars of pickled eggs at the counter make it a one-of-a-kind dining experience. Quite frankly, if you haven’t been to Philippe, you have no business calling yourself an Angeleno. Oh by the way, they still sell a cup of coffee for nine cents, the best deal in town.

While we’re on the subject of coffee, eff off Starbucks
Yes, it’s true. There are zero Starbucks in all of Chinatown. It’s the one place where the gospel of Howard Schultz hasn’t caught on (there's even Starbucks in the Forbidden City in Beijing these days). For the price of one venti mocha latte you can get forty cups of joe at Philippe. And not get harassed by a snobby barista.

Now if Starbucks specialized in tea instead of coffee, maybe it would be a different story
Tea is an integral part of not only the Chinese dining experience, but its cultural norms as well. Tea ceremonies are traditional parts of weddings and family gatherings as a way of paying respect to elders. In Chinatown, boxed teas can be found in most of the general stores, as well as specialty stores where you can also walk in and self-serve from large canisters for your own magic elixir. Wing Hop Fung Ginseng & China Products in Far East Plaza is reputed to be one of the largest herbal retailers in the country, with a huge selection of tea and ginseng, as well as an assortment of Chinese foods, medicine, and home products. I’m too cheap to shell out for some of those amazingly high-priced teas, but I can vouch for the quality of herbal remedies that my older relatives have used to treat me in the past, based on many of these ingredients.

Wing Hop Fung is one of many stores in Chinatown where you can find the same herbs that have been used in China for thousands of years

More than just trinkets and knick-knacks
The greater downtown area is synonymous with bargain shopping for various goods (see: Fashion District, Jewelry District, Toy District). While Chinatown isn’t known for its shopping, it does offer plenty of opportunities for cheap goods beyond the seemingly countless stalls of junky exotic-looking merchandise. But only if you can haggle. Both Dynasty Center and Saigon Plaza contain a maze of bazaars selling clothes, handbags, electronics, and other random items, all available at whatever price you can talk the vendor into selling them to you. Numerous jewelry stores can be found at the Broadway Jewelry Mart in Chinatown Plaza and the Dynasty Jewelry Mart. Most of these merchants are Southeast Asian immigrants referenced earlier, and you’ll notice the preponderance of Vietnamese food concentrated here. There’s also a Farmers Market in a parking lot on Hill on Thursday afternoons.

Chinatown is no Melrose, but does have a couple of stores that attempt to bring some current flavor to the area. Lions Den on New High is a nondescript small, trendy clothing boutique with some funky threads. And for other eclectic merchandise, Munky King in Central Plaza and Ooga Booga on Broadway carry quirky toys, art, and books.

Munky King strives to achieve "individuality in the face of conformity"

So then where do the cool kids hang out?
While most of Chinatown shuts down pretty early, there is a small nightlife scene concentrated in Central Plaza. Grand Star Jazz Club is the standard, a restaurant/jazz club owned by the Quon family for more than 60 years. It’s totally chill and sporadically offers karaoke in addition to the live acts – co-owner Frank (one of my friends tabbed him Frank Quon-atra) and his brother Wally will get up and sing some old standards as well, while “Mommy” tends the bar. On the first, third, and fifth Friday of the month, the second floor turns into a dance club, Firecracker.

Grand Star is a great place to get introduced to "strangers in the night"

The other two bars of note also have historical significance. Hop Louie, which has a super-dive bar on the first floor beneath the main restaurant, is home of the five-tier golden pagoda, the biggest landmark built during the construction of New Chinatown in 1941. In contrast, The Mountain Bar captures the newer art scene, with DJs spinning tunes in a swanky lounge setting; however, for more than 120 years, the space served as the oldest restaurant in Chinatown (Man Jen Low, also known as General Lee’s) until its closure in 1987, owned by several generations of the Lee family.

The inside of Hop Louie is about as dated as the pagoda itself, but that's part of the charm

After you’ve abused your liver, wander over to Full House Seafood Restaurant across Hill or sober up on the walk over to Won Kok Restaurant (minds out of the gutter, please) on Alpine. Both places are open until 3 am for late night greasy Chinese food.

The food's not all that at Full House, but who cares - Chinese food at 3 am rocks!

Unfortunately it’s a little tougher to work off that greasy food
Chinatown is not particularly green, like most of greater Downtown, but the Alpine Recreation Center on Yale provides facilities for residents to have their leisure time. Like other city parks, there are standard basketball courts, playground equipment, and a gymnasium. Catering to the local population, there is also a table tennis table and martial arts and tai chi classes offered. You’ll often find older men playing xiangqi (Chinese chess) on the tables in front.

Future Kobes may be born here at Alpine (The mamba is by far the biggest jersey seller in China, not Yao)

However, there are no tennis courts in Chinatown so aspiring Michael Changs have to be resourceful to find a match, like this man rallying with himself beneath the Gold Line overpass.

Exercising your mind is just as important as exercising your body
Achievement is a central part of Chinese culture in order to bring honor to one’s family, and education is seen as a big enabler of success. Castelar Elementary School on Yale is Chinatown’s lone school, serving as a house of learning for children from all of the various immigrant groups that have passed through the area over the years. In operation since 1883, it has the second-longest running tenure of any elementary school in LA.

Tens of thousands of children, including many first-generation Americans, have passed through these gates over the last 120 years

Although the Chinatown branch of the LA Public Library used to be housed at Castelar, a new standalone building was constructed four years ago at Hill and Ord to expand the branch’s facilities. The modern architecture stands in contrast to the old buildings and pagoda-rich structures that are pervasive throughout the rest of Chinatown.

Reading is fundamental, no matter what language you speak

The connection to mind, body, and soul
Traditional Chinese base many practices on the holistic view that everything in the universe is interconnected, which draws heavily from principles from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Chua Ba Thien Hau Temple on Yale, which pays tribute to the Taoist goddess Matzu, is the largest of several temples in Chinatown, most of which are associated with benevolent associations. These temples, along with ancestral shrines, allow worshippers to pray to their ancestors and gods.

The temple was rebuilt in 2005

While Christianity is now rapidly growing in China as the country opens up to the rest of the world, Chinese-American churches have been a prominent part of the landscape in the US since the arrival of the early immigrants. The Chinese United Methodist Church on Hill is the oldest Chinese-American church in LA, formed in 1877 by a former Christian missionary. The largest Chinese Baptist church in California, First Chinese Baptist Church Los Angeles, is on Yale.

Like many other things in Chinatown, this church is the oldest of its kind in the city

Other interesting things you'll see in Chinatown
The Capitol Milling Company was a flour mill that serviced bakeries all over LA, including Nancy Silverton’s beloved La Brea Bakery. It operated in the area for more than a hundred-fifty years until 1998, when the company relocated to a bigger facility in Colton. Since 1883, it had been owned by multiple German immigrant families and their descendants, before being purchased by ConAgra in 1999. The building is one of the oldest standing buildings remaining in Los Angeles, going all the way back to 1831. Redevelopment plans have been made to convert it into (what else?) lofts but, like the many other proposed projects in Chinatown, the groundbreaking has not yet begun.

Vendors do their best to appeal to the needs of all visitors, leading to some interesting combinations of services and goods. Where else are you going to be able to get hot dogs, nachos, and fish balls with curry sauce?

These murals on Broadway from 1968 are composed of hundreds of tiles. According to the Public Art in LA website, the murals depict three different scenes:

The mural on the viewer's left, designed in the style of a Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) landscape ink drawing, is described in the Chinese inscription as "Picture of Viewing Waterfalls in Summer Mountains." The center mural, identified as "Palace in Heaven", depicts a scene about the monkey king from the long 14th century episodic tale Hsi-yu chi, The Journey to the West. The colorful mural on the viewer's right, "Four Beauties Catching Swimming Fish", is in a style from southern China.

This is another mural entitled “The Party at Lan-ting” on one of the walls of Castelar School on College. It was designed as part of the larger city-wide effort under SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) to restore ethnic pride to the communities, enhance the aesthetics of local neighborhoods, and train aspiring artisan youths. The sad irony of the graffiti defacing the mural speaks to the fact that there is still much work to be done to build up and clean up many underserved communities around the city. The scene depicted is of a birthday party for Wang Xizhi, considered one of the founders of modern Chinese calligraphy during the 4th century.

Though it feels worlds apart from other parts of the greater Downtown area, Chinatown sits in the shadow of City Hall and the skyscrapers of the Financial District. From the top of the Metro station, you can also see the tops of the lights at Dodger Stadium and the entire river basin out towards East LA if you take a 360-degree panoramic view.

Also at the Chinatown Metro station is this energy dial entitled “The Wheels of Change,” based on the principles of the I Ching, one of the seminal Chinese texts. I can’t possibly explain all of the different aspects of cultural significance that this is intended to embody, so check out this site if you want to better understand its meaning.

The Chinatown Gateway at Broadway and Cesar Chavez was built in 2001 and functions as the main access point to Chinatown. The depiction of twin dragons above the clouds is said to represent good luck, harmony, and prosperity. Which makes this a great place to conclude our visit to Chinatown in the hopes that those things will follow you wherever life takes you.

Why Cha Cha Chicken Rulez

2007-08-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 13)

Several years ago, I used to be a Westsider and part of my weekly routine was to hit up the beach, whether playing ball on the blacktop at Venice, laying out and reading a book at Ocean Park, or people watching at Santa Monica. It was super-relaxing to be out in the sun, soaking up the ocean breeze, and enjoying the local culture. Part of the culture was stopping off at some of the eccentric beachfront shacks to grab a bite and talk with the help.

These days, I rarely get all the way out to those Westside beaches, but this past weekend, I was meeting a friend out near the pier, so we decided to eat an early dinner at Cha Cha Chicken, one of the best of the beach-area shacks. And I was happy to find that it was good as I remembered.

Cha Cha Chicken, not to be confused with Cha Cha Cha in Silver Lake and WeHo, is a shack that serves Caribbean-style cuisine. It’s actually a couple of blocks from the beach, off of Pico and Ocean, but it’s certainly close enough to trek over in your flip-flops. There’s no indoor seating: the patio area is shaded with thatch-covered umbrellas, and the walls and fences are painted with bright festive colors and murals.

What’s so fantastic about Cha Cha Chicken is that the food is really frickin’ good, and pretty reasonable. There’s a pretty short list of menu items, but the trademark of the restaurant is its jerk chicken, served in various forms from whole chicken to wings to enchiladas to tostadas. Most of the entrees are around $8 so you don’t need to carry a wad in your board shorts. They also offer a few brunch items like chicken hash and jerk eggs.

One of the things that I love about jerk spice is the explosion of contrasting tastes that result from the sweetness of the allspice and the spiciness of peppers. The jerk seasoning from Cha Cha Chicken seems to accentuate each of those opposing flavors. When I first took a bite of the jerk chicken enchilada, I got the simultaneous rush of a sharp hotness from the spice accompanied by the cooling of a pleasant sweetness from the touch of mango and pineapple in the sauce. My throat had that rare moment of clarity, where it felt like I had eaten a cough drop, except if the cough drop had a bunch of yummy exotic flavors instead of artificial cherry.

In addition to the contrasting flavor, I also appreciated the contrasting texture of the tostada. The tostada is prepared on a baked tortilla rather than a flattened crunchy taco shell, and served with dirty rice and beans, fresh cabbage, lettuce, and parmesan cheese. The crispness of the vegetables and tortilla subtly complemented the tenderness of the moist chicken and the smoothness of the sauce, while the rice and beans anchored the dish with a little heavier substance.

The other awesome thing they serve is their fresh juices, like watermelon, cantaloupe, or horchata. The natural sweetness of the fruits shines through, rather than an over-sugared, artificial punch. On a warm summer day, it’s the perfect refresher, almost as replenishing as the incomparable sweet tea of the South, and unlike a Red Stripe, won’t dehydrate you when you go out and brave the sun again.

Unlike many of the beachfront joints, Cha Cha Chicken stays open until 10 pm, so you can pop in even after you’ve been out doing other things. The only problem is finding parking, which as anyone who treks down that way knows, is nightmarish during the summer with the beach crowd in full force. Of course, when your biggest worry is related to how many blocks you’ll have to walk to enjoy an outing on the beautiful, if not polluted, Pacific waters, life is pretty good.

Cha Cha Chicken
1906 Ocean Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90405

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Sorry Belgium, It's Still About the Beer

2007-08-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on August 3)

If you were to give me a word association test and prompt me with “Belgian cuisine”, I would immediately answer waffles. Then beer. The chocolate. Then French fries (despite the misnomer, I’m in the fries originated from Belgium camp). Then a big fat blank stare.

What is it about Belgian food that is so unremarkable, so unmemorable? Perhaps it is the fact that the cuisine draws heavily from the nation’s larger neighbors, France and Germany. Or maybe it’s just the lack of standout ingredients to give the food a distinctive flavor or aroma. And quite possibly, it’s the fact that Belgian waffles, beer, and chocolate are so good, they overshadow everything else.

I actually think one of the biggest reasons why Belgian food is oft-forgotten out here (at least in my mind) is that there are virtually no authentic Belgian restaurants throughout the Southland, and a paucity of quality non-French European restaurants in general. When I lived in Chicago, all sorts of European cuisine were readily accessible, which is no surprise given the contrasting immigration patterns of Chi-town relative to LA (let’s just say the Chinese food out there is, um, suspect). I’ll admit, I’m also somewhat predisposed against Belgian food because I like more robust, spicy flavors and lighter ingredients.

But in order to give Belgian food a fair shake, my food buddy Amy and I decided to wander over to Brussels Bistro in downtown Laguna Beach. The subterranean restaurant features a modern décor to match the artsy vibe of the area, but has a menu with faithful representations of classic Belgian dishes, as well as live jazz during the week and DJs on weekends. Though to be honest, we were mostly interested in feeding our craving for some good French fries than experimenting with the entrees.

Of course, being a Belgian restaurant, I made sure my first course was a beer. Brussels Bistro has a solid selection of brews, with standbys such as Stella Artois and Hoegaarden Blanche amongst the six beers on tap, alongside a wider variety of bottles like Lindemans and Chimay. Our server suggested the Maredsous 8, which had a nice brown body but also a hint of sweetness that gave it a lighter taste. Probably a little too sweet for my taste but still a good starter drink.

As for the food, the menu offered a nice mix of choices. Starters included Chimay cheese, white asparagus and mimosa eggs, and a tomato and saffron fish soup. The entrees were similarly diverse, with a beef stew in Stella, a parsley-crusted salmon with Kriek Lindemans (cherry) sauce, and chicken meatballs in a tarragon mustard sauce amongst the options. Most of the dishes are served with fries, although you can also get fries as an appetizer, accompanied by dipping sauces.

I decided to go traditional and opted for the moules frites, or mussels and fries, steamed in a white wine sauce. The mussels came out in a humongous pot, filled with at least 50 mussels. In fact, there were so many that I couldn’t finish my meal, not because I was full, but because I was too damn tired from pulling them off the shell to eat any more. The sauce was not particularly noticeable at first, but when I got closer to the bottom of the pot, the mussels that remained submerged had definitely absorbed the broth, allowing the flavor from the onion and celery to deaden some of the taste of the mussels. Amy had the chicken and mushroom sauce in puff pastry. This dish was a bit disappointing, with the sauce relatively bland so that it tasted more like the chicken and dumplings dish from Cheesecake Factory; the taste of the mushrooms seemed to be lost within the cream.

Yet, all this was secondary to the fries. We watched excitedly as other tables were served their glass cup. But when the fries finally came, they didn’t taste particularly fresh, as if they had been sitting under a heat lamp. However, the more we ate, the more they grew on us. They were crisp, but not crispy, and also not too potatoey. I particularly enjoyed adding sea salt to the fries for a fuller seasoning. I think we suffer from French fry fatigue in the States, desensitized by the omnipresence of fast food, so it’s hard to judge fries objectively (though for my money, McDonald’s fries with their beef extract are still tops). From what I’ve been told, real fries in Belgium are amazing, though the whole mayo thing throws me off. So the fries here were not amazing, but certainly passable.

I’m sure Brussels Bistro will be highly appealing to some folks that love this type of cuisine. Even though the food costs bistro prices, you’ll get a dining experience that you can scarcely find anywhere else in LA. It didn’t quite make me a convert to Belgian food, but that’s OK, just fill me up another pint and I’m a happy man.

Brussels Bistro
222 Forest Ave.
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

All photos by Amy Yang

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Dinner and, um, Dancing at Caspian

2007-07-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on July 27)

So last week, I was trying to be a good older brother and took out my fresh-out-of-college-not-making-any-money-yet little sister out to dinner to spend some quality family time together. I IMed her and said “hey, what do you think about Persian food” and she replied “yeah, that would be cool, I hardly ever go eat Persian.” I figured a nice classy dinner at Caspian Restaurant in Irvine, good food, good brother-sister conversation would make a good night.

We did get that. We also got some additional entertainment.

First, the food. I had the soltani, recommended by our server, which was a long skewer of filet mignon and long skewer of ground beef served with basmati rice. Despite my normal non-red meat tendencies, I found the filet succulent, marinated nicely with a ton of flavor, and plenty tender and juicy even after it had been sitting out for awhile. The ground beef was comparatively bland, but eaten with grilled tomato helped offset some of the savoriness of the filet.

My sister opted for fesenjon, a chicken stew with a pomegranate and walnut sauce on a bed of crispy and basmati rice. The sauce was very thick and a bit on the tart side; I barely even noticed the chicken. And though I know it’s supposed to be that way, it was a bit of a put off – I guess I prefer a sauce with a hint of sourness to be lighter so it doesn’t totally dominate the palate. Still, the portions were good-sized and the service was spot-on.

Then there was the entertainment. It started out with a band, which played an eclectic mix of jazz, traditional Persian songs, and remade American covers. Caspian has a big dance floor and stage in the middle of the restaurant (it’s ideally set up for big wedding receptions) and, in classic OC fashion, a soccer mom and her four blond kids got into the beats and were gyrating up a storm, much to the amusement of the lead singer. I was most amused by the curious cover of Lionel Richie’s “Stuck on You” mixed with a cover of “I Will Survive”.

But the highlight, or lowlight depending on your perspective, was when the band cleared the stage and the belly dancers came up. There are a number of Middle Eastern/North African places throughout LA that have belly dancing. Some are more G-rated than others, and the attractiveness of the dancers can certainly vary widely as well. At Caspian, the three women were young, slim, and toned, and showed off their exquisite, um, skill (see the blond in the cover picture). The on-stage routines, set to both traditional folk songs and urban techno beats, were great. When the dancers went out table to table for tips, the intensity got raised up a notch.

During the next fifteen minutes, the dancers worked the room, eliciting the evil eye of girlfriends and wives as they shook provocatively in front of boyfriends and husbands who tried to not grab anything inappropriate while tucking their ones and fives in the dancers’ belts, hips swaying about two feet in front of their faces. My sister and I laughed at the disgusted looks. A group of older Middle Eastern women wearing hijab got up and left after being seated for five minutes. My sister pondered the similarity between these belly dancers and strip club dancers. I said nothing.

In actuality, Caspian is an elegant, classy establishment, decorated with beautiful statues and paintings in the foyer, big columns and arches as you enter the dining room, and high ceilings with lots of open space inside. The food is of good quality, though a bit pricey compared to the less festive restaurants in Little Gaza off Brookhurst in Anaheim. But be forewarned of what you’re getting yourself into (at least on Wednesday through Saturday when they have the live entertainment) so you don’t have to walk home alone after dinner.

I’m just glad I was with my sister and not my mom.

Caspian Restaurant
14100 Culver Dr.
Irvine, CA 92604

Life Imitating Art Imitating Life

2007-07-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on July 25)

When I was in elementary school, we had this art program called Meet the Masters in which our “docent” would educate us about a famous artist and allow us to employ the artist’s signature techniques. As an eight-year old, it was an enjoyable way to not only about art history, but appreciate the creativity and skill of the masters, whether it was the pointillism of Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the Post-Impressionist swirls in Van Gogh’s Starry Night, or the cubist style of Picasso’s Guernica. For a kid who was not artistically-inclined (Open House was always a bit of an embarrassment for me to show my parents how hideous my work was compared to the other kids), it helped bring art to life.

Down in Laguna Beach, art has been part of the local culture since its days in the early 1900s as an artist colony (long before it was known for bimbos in beemers). For the last 75 years, the city has been literally bringing art to life through its annual summer showcase, Pageant of the Masters. One of the crown jewels of Orange County, POM is a mind-blowing celebration of artistic work using a technique called tableaux vivants, or living pictures. In a nutshell, famous paintings and sculptures are recreated using actual people in costume and makeup, with intricately designed backgrounds to make it look like the original work of art.

If the concept sounds hard to grasp, imagine looking at a three-dimensional version of a painting, except for the fact that the sets and lighting are done in such a way to make it look like you’re looking at a two-dimensional piece of art. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes (which are admittedly a bit faulty). But I found myself constantly squinting and rubbing throughout the show because it sure as heck looked like something painted on a canvas, rather than live-bodied people in costume.

Put on by a dedicated staff and hundreds of volunteers, this year’s Pageant is themed “Young at Heart” to capture both the essence of youth and the celebration of life. The show features a mix of mediums and time periods, from old French marble statues to 20th century British watercolors. The first act contains depictions of oil paintings and sculptures from favorite fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White. For the bronze sculpture depicting Peter Pan, they added a fun twist with a ‘Tinkerbell’ flying above the crowd. One of my favorites was the more modern magazine art, which recreated magazine covers from the 1950s with scenes like Working on the Jalopy and Crying on Santa’s Lap. While the second act seems to wander from the theme a bit, it also offers a mix of visuals, opening with a traditional Chinese lion and dragon dance. Some notables include Hopper’s New York Movie and a gilt silver chess set of Henry VIII. The final act is Da Vinci’s incomparable fresco, The Last Supper, minus the “So Dark the Con of Man” scrawling.

This year, the Pageant showed how they accomplish the living picture technique through Thompson’s Apple Gathering. The stage hands have a huge frame, set at a certain distance to apply the proper perspective. In the foreground, they roll in a set, which has physical props and has been painted with the appropriate shadows and colors to give the right effect, and may have the actors in place, set at a certain height to give the illusion of depth. Then, they roll in a painted background which fills in the rest of the picture. It seems more like a live diorama until they shut off the stage lights to blacken the area around the frame, then turn the lights back on to create the tableaux vivant effect. At this point, you hear the gasp through the audience as they see the transformation from random things on stage to 2D but 3D masterpiece. It’s just a ‘Wow!’ moment.

Among the many amazing aspects of the production is the fact that each “performance” not only captures the scenes depicted in the original works, but captures the nuances of the texture and colors of the art. For example, the recreation of Impressionist paintings like Monet’s Women in the Garden feature dimmer lighting, costumes with more broken colors, and a hazy background to capture the brush stroke effect, whereas the portrayal of N.C. Wyeth’s mural The Giant is brightly lit, with sharper colored outfits to delineate greater depth and definition. Makeup isn’t just applied to capture the color of a bronze, marble, or porcelain statue, but also the physical qualities of those elements.

The other great thing about the Pageant is the venue. Carved into the side of a hill in Laguna Canyon just up the road from main beach, the outdoor theater is OC’s answer to the Greek. With the mountains in the background and the brisk air of a cool summer evening, it is a refreshing escape from the hustle and bustle of reality. POM is part of the larger Festival of Arts, which showcases the works of more than a hundred local artists in the courtyard outside the theater, and features live demonstrations and music acts as well.

The only negative? Getting a ticket. The tickets typically sell out immediately after they go on sale in late winter, so unless you are willing to pay absurd amounts through a reseller or on eBay, you’re SOL.

Festival of Arts/Pageant of the Masters
650 Laguna Canyon Rd.
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Shows nightly from July 7-August 31.

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Jonesing for Cheap Eats

2007-07-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on July 20)

When I was a UCLA student many moons ago, one of my favorite places to eat was Buck-Fitty (also known as Roll Inn Sandwich). I am somewhat dating myself in that I remember when the good-but-not-really-that-good sammiches actually cost $1.50, instead of the $3 or whatever they charge now. Point being, as a poor starving college student, I could get an awesome meal for under $3 (after you threw in the incomparable $1 Diddy Riese ice-cream sandwich, before they raised prices to pay for the fancy signage) and spend less than $6 for a Friday night date.

These days, though I am not quite as poor and not starving as often, I still have an affinity for reliable restaurants with cheap meals (and thus cheap dates) that are wholly satisfying, if not somewhat tasty and surprisingly good for being not “gourmet fine dining”. Doria’s Haus of Pizza in Costa Mesa is one of the spots in suburbia that meets this need for me.

Owned and operated by the Doria family since 1974 (at its current location since 1981), Haus of Pizza is a simple, no-frills restaurant with a straightforward menu of pizzas, pastas, and sandwiches. The dishes are comprised of simple recipes that Mom would make, that is, if my mom was Italian and I was named Luigi. Pastas are served with marinara or meat sauce, and with an add-on option for meatballs or sausages. What’s great is that everything but the most “exotic” pasta dishes (i.e., fettucini alfredo and tortellini) is between $5 and $7, which includes soup or salad and some super-buttery garlic bread reminiscent of the fried cheese toast they serve over at the Sizz-lah (yum!). Pizzas start at $6 for a 10” pie. In other words, you can feed a family of four for less than $30 with tax and tip.

The namesake product, the pizza, is made New-York style, with doughy crust, greasy mozzarella cheese, and enough chili pepper in the tomato sauce to give it that extra kick. I really love the fact that the pizza is served straight out of the oven with the cheese browning and bubbling over, burning the top of your mouth like a good pizza should. They also have a cool plastic pizza cutter/spatula contraption that I’ve decided is the second-best kitchen utensil after the spork.

Another one of the popular dishes is the panzerotti (essentially a deep-fried calzone, filled with meat and oozing with mozzarella cheese and served with meat sauce on the outside), which is only served on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It just may be the perfect food, covering all four food groups, and it’s fried, but not super heavy or greasy (or at least as light as fried dough, meat, and cheese can be).

The pastas are just as you’d expect, hearty and consistent. The lasagna leans more on the mozzarella than the ricotta and doesn’t contain a ton of meat, but is a lot more saucy than you’d find in a nicer Italian restaurant. And the spaghetti (which costs $3.90 on Monday nights as part of Haus of Pizza’s daily pasta specials) is, well, spaghetti. It’s pretty hard to eff that up.

Because of its reasonable prices, as well as its prime location by three schools (Orange Coast College, Vanguard University, and a Paul Mitchell school next door), Haus of Pizza attracts more than its fair share of Velcro-walleted college kids that thrive off of the cheap-eats. However, the restaurant really brings in a diverse crowd, from single old white men to middle-aged Filipino couples to young Latino families. It’s got the classic red and white checkerboard tablecloths, with walls adorned with Crayola drawings from its younger clientele, just like Mom’s refrigerator door back home. No one is going to mistake this place for Valentino’s. But it’s a lot more fun and personal than going to the great-breadsticks-but-sterile-atmosphere Pat & Oscar’s or the lackluster-food-but-we-still-try-to-pretend-to-be-classy Olive Garden. And it’s a hell of a lot better than me boiling up water and opening a jar of Ragu. I mean, why would I burn an hour on prep, cook, and clean when I can get a heaping portion of spaghetti and meat sauce with salad and garlic bread for less than $5 in fifteen minutes? (Yes, I speak as a single guy)

Bottom line, you don’t go to Haus of Pizza to have your taste buds wowed. You go to have your stomach filled, because you know it will be at the end of the meal. You go because you can, because it feels obscene to get a good meal for that cheap and you want to keep taking advantage of it before the Doria’s wake up and raise their prices. You go because while the world around us changes, and people shell out $3 for a friggin’ cupcake or $6 for yogurt-flavored fake frozen yogurt, some things stay the same.

Doria’s Haus of Pizza
1500 Adams Ave. #108
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

ESPN Hates LA Basketball

2007-06-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on June 26)

No, not really ESPN. Just one guy, John Hollinger. And not all LA basketball, just the local college guys awaiting their fate in Thursday’s NBA draft. (In fact, given the deluge of Kobe stories that the Leader has been trumpeting, you would probably argue that ESPN’s love for the Lakers is only surpassed by its obscene coverage of Yankees-Red Sox).

Hollinger, ESPN’s resident stats guru, published an article today (currently Insider free preview) with a rankings methodology for college players entering the draft. His formula uses such their statistics from last season, adjusted for factors like strength of competition, age, and height. Interestingly enough, the most important stats by his calculation are steals, blocks, rebounds, 3-pointers, and a variant of the assist-to-turnover ratio, which attempt to provide some objective measure of athleticism, activity, and ability.

His results? Seemingly pretty accurate as it pertains to the last five years. But not so pretty if you support our local college heroes. He has USC’s Nick Young and Gabe Pruitt, as well as UCLA’s Arron Afflalo, all out of his top 30, the number of picks in the first round (where the guaranteed money is). In fact, the last section of his article is titled “The two USC guys look like total busts.”

There have been players to make the NBA with scores lower than those of Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young, and a couple of them even turned out to be halfway decent. But many more of the players who scored that low had disappointing pro careers, so clearly this is not the way to bet.

Truth be told, Pruitt and Young both have major red flags to overcome. Pruitt's rebound rate of 4.9 is shockingly bad for a 6-4 guard alleged to have above-par athleticism, and he just didn't do much of anything else to set himself apart from the countless other guards trying to play their way into the league.

Young is an even deeper mystery. If this guy's such a good athlete, how'd he have only 27 steals and 10 blocks this past season? As I mentioned above, his pure point ratio is hold-your-nose awful for a guard, his rebound rate is only OK, and it's not like he put up these numbers against stellar competition. Why exactly are we supposed to be excited about this guy?

Actually, this formula doesn't seem to be kind to players from L.A. Arron Afflalo rated even worse than the two Trojans; Afflalo, Nevada guard Ramon Sessions, and Florida guard Taurean Green are fringe first-rounders who are best to be avoided.

Although Hollinger’s conclusions may be foreboding to the long-term success of Young, Pruitt, and Afflalo in the NBA, draft projections suggest that they are held in much higher regard by NBA GMs. Young is expected to be a mid-first round pick, perhaps on the fringe of the lottery, while Pruitt and Afflalo are considered borderline first-rounders. The three stud perimeter players, along with Cal St. Fullerton point guard Bobby Brown, comprise the strongest collection of local prospective draft picks since 1995, when UCLA’s championship squad had two first-rounders (#9 Ed O’Bannon and #22 George Zidek) and a second-rounder (#47 Tyus Edney).

Young is thought to have the highest upside, with a long 6’6” frame, terrific mid-range game, and ability to create his own shot. While Hollinger’s stats seem to indicate his athleticism is overrated, tell that to the top defenders he repeatedly schooled as the go-to guy for the Trojans’ Sweet 16 team last year. He has the goods to be a solid slasher and scorer at the next level. Pruitt made a solid return to the court after sitting out with academic ineligibility during the first part of the season, unselfishly switching from his more natural position at shooting guard to point guard to fulfill a huge hole in USC’s roster. He is a solid defensive player, a good decision maker, in short a glue guy that has the potential to be an effective combo guard if put in the right position.

Afflalo is one of the most decorated Bruins in the post-Wooden era, a first-team All-American and undisputed leader of two consecutive Final Four teams. He’s been panned for a lack of athleticism as compared to the players he’ll face at the next level, but ask anyone who watched UCLA last season and they’ll tell you he was their fiercest competitor, always wanted to defend the opponent’s top offensive perimeter player, and always wanted the ball down the stretch. Like Pruitt, he’ll be a great asset to a contending team that needs a role player to play within a system; over time he could easily evolve into a slightly smaller version of the Spurs’ Bruce Bowen with a better offensive game.

Ever since Michael Lewis’ Moneyball was published, the use of complex statistical analysis to evaluate has become an accepted, mainstream technique, though not as much in basketball. While traditionalists scoff at the notion that computers can spit out conclusions that fly in the face of what the naked eye sees, there can be little argument that statistics add value to the process based on the results of its practitioners. However, in isolation, solely relying on statistics while throwing out common sense can be just as dangerous an exercise. Here’s hoping that the intangible qualities of leadership, clutch play, and heart which can’t necessarily be measured by a stat sheet prove that Hollinger is off-base, at least when it comes to the boys from Galen and Pauley.

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – A New Twist on a Familiar Friend

2007-06-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on June 22)

I’ve always been a huge breakfast fan. Favorite meal of the day. Breakfast for dinner? Tight. Eggs, potatoes, pancakes, sausage, it doesn’t matter, it’s all tasty.

However, when I think about breakfast restaurants, the places that come to mind are typically diners, bakeries, or coffee shops. More Waffle House (why there are no Waffle Houses in California is a whole separate post) than Wolfgang Puck. Rarely are the terms “breakfast” and “haute cuisine” associated with each other. But this week’s restaurant seeks to blend those concepts together.

Break of Dawn Restaurant in Laguna Hills takes traditional American favorites and adds a European/Vietnamese influence to create a high-end eating experience from comfort foods. Chef Dee Nguyen leverages his prior background as the executive sous chef at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel to infuse fine dining principles to a more typically casual meal, challenging the convention that all culinary creativity can only be found at dinner.

Interestingly enough, Nguyen opened Break of Dawn last year primarily because he wanted to spend more time with his family. As such, the restaurant is only open from 7 am to 3 pm on Tuesday through Sunday, which enables the chef to look after his disabled son. While the restaurant’s hidden location in the back of a shopping center tends to attract far more senior citizens from nearby Laguna Woods than destination eaters, it provides an ideal spot for Nguyen to achieve the work-life balance he craves, given that his house is less than ten minutes away.

But that wasn’t the only reason the chef left the comfortable confines of the Ritz: he wanted to be back on the line creating great meals for people. And we are the beneficiaries. Dee’s menu is a mixture of standard breakfast fare, sweet specialties, unique savory brunch dishes, and even traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup (pho) and sandwiches (banh mi). Unlike your run-of-the-mill brunch spot, premium ingredients are used to inject a little life into ordinary dishes. Coconut-pineapple muffins. Oatmeal brulee. Goat cheese omelettes. Chilaquiles rancheros with a chipotle pepper sauce and fresh guacamole.

During my last visit, I went sweet and got the crème brulee French toast. One of the most popular dishes, the dish should almost be classified as dessert – what better way to start the day than crème brulee! The custard base was a creamy Kahlua-coconut concoction, kinda similar to the filling of a Beard Papa cream puff, and certainly beats the maple syrup that I would normally drown French toast in. The bread was a raisin and cinnamon brioche, moist and not overly sweet (the crème brulee takes care of that part). Another house favorite is the homemade sticky bun, served with coffee syrup and pecan glaze.

On the savory side, the recommended dish is the barbeque pork, served with jalapeno corn bake, Vietnamese slaw, and tempura poached eggs. The pork is served Southern barbeque style, shredded, but seasoned with five spice to give it a distinct Asian flavor. However, my personal favorite part of the dish is the tempura egg. Not only does the runniness of the egg help coat the pork, but the light flakiness of the tempura batter complements the tenderness of the meat. And really, when is tempura not good? Chef Nguyen also professes his love for the smoked salmon and egg, served with a lemon-caper emulsion, oatmeal galette, and tomato. (He likes to pair meats with poached eggs to add heartiness to the meal) Other interesting combinations include corned beef with sweet potato hash, biscuits and gravy with ginger meat loaf and a cheddar biscuit, and a butternut squash bisque with crab rolls.

Break of Dawn also weaves these contrasting themes throughout its design and layout. While the dishes are plated elegantly as they would be at a classy European restaurant, the restaurant is filled with greenery and dark wooden furniture reminiscent of Vietnam. The walls are adorned with elegant framed calligraphic prints containing philosophical thoughts about food (“Cannot think, love, or sleep well unless one has dined well”), but the kitchen is open so you can casually sit at the counter and talk with Dee while he is caramelizing the custard or prepping an omelette. It’s part of the whole vibe, making sophistication accessible to the masses, and he makes you feel like you’re a guest in his house rather than receiving some stuffy white-glove service. The other nice thing is that you won’t have to break the bank to sample these inventive creations; almost all of the dishes fall between five and ten bucks, and many of them can be ordered as a side dish as sort of a build your own sampler platter.

Typically I don’t think breakfast warrants going out of your way for (and Break of Dawn is certainly out of the way for most patrons that would be reading this blog), even if it is my favorite meal of the day, but Break of Dawn is such an atypical brunch concept that it deserves special treatment. That and it’s some damn good eats. We all love The Pantry. But it’s nice to go gourmet every so often as well.

Break of Dawn Restaurant
24351 Avenida de la Carlota #N6
Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Where Have You Gone Ced Ceballos?

2007-06-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on June 21)

It’s not even worth bringing up his name anymore. The story got old about two seconds after hit the air the first time, and about four weeks before all of this ridiculous war of words, MySpace baiting, YouTube disparaging business became headline news. Trade him. Don’t trade him. Whatever.

All I know is that I miss the old Lakers.

I’m not talking about the Showtime Lakers of the 80s (though those were some of the most spectacular teams of all-time) or even the Big Aristotle-centric Lakers that dominated just a few years ago. I’m talking about the post-Magic (I’ll pretend like his “comeback” didn’t actually happen), pre-Shaq Lakers. The Ced Ceballos leaner in the lane Lakers. The George Lynch dive after loose balls Lakers. The Eddie Jones blow-by for a throwdown Lakers. The Vlade flop when it was still cool Lakers.

I miss cheering for likable players that had some game. I miss following a team that was enjoyable to watch on the court together, rather than a disjointed one-man gang and his lackeys. I miss watching a young team full of promise, though still flawed and vulnerable, hungry to prove themselves rather than coming in with a sense of entitlement. I miss having a front office not satisfied with mediocrity but actively putting together a roster to achieve success in the short-term and the long-term instead of expecting fans to patiently wait for “a few years” to get the ship turned around.

Not that those teams weren’t without faults. You had talented but mercurial Nick Van Exel taking a swing at ref Ron Garretson and going at it with coach Del Harris. There was also the frustrating Elden Campbell, at times an unstoppable force in the low post, but possessing the focus of a St. Bernard puppy chasing its tail. And they lacked some of the personality and charisma of other Laker teams that we hold dear to our hearts. But with those mid 90s teams, you could focus on solely basketball, rather than the drama surrounding the team, even if the basketball was only good enough for 45-50 wins and an early playoff exit. They were teams worth supporting. For those of us that love the sport as much as we love the Lakers, rooting for this current Lakers team is becoming about as fun as going to the dentist.

Sure, we’re occasionally treated to the amazing 81-point games, insane game-winning shots, and flashes of the most devastating offensive set in modern basketball history. More often, we have to suffer through absurd 12 for 40 nights, guys who play defense with the enthusiasm of a 7-Eleven clerk working the graveyard shift, and role players that wet their pants in big moments or are too lousy to put themselves in a position to be too scared to screw up. We have to watch a front office putz around without any discernible plan (unless wasting draft picks on chumps, throwing money after washed-up free agents, and making lousy trades can be considered a plan). And maybe worst of all, we have to put up with these celebrity personalities (players, coach, and owners) who seem to think that their ego and Q rating should supercede the good of the team and franchise.

Without question, LA thrives on celebrity, and the Lakers have always been about stars, from Elgin to Jerry to Wilt to Kareem to Magic to Riles to Shaq to P-Jax to that guy. And it’s the star power, both on the court and in the stands, that have made the Lakers the marquee franchise in the NBA, irrespective of the team’s success (though there’s been a lot of it). But at what point does the incessant fawning over the team’s stars become too much?

Look, there’s no denying that the Lakers possess the singularly most talented player in the game right now (haters, you need to get your eyes checked if you think we have “witnessed” anything to suggest otherwise). He’s spectacular to watch, adored by the vast majority of Laker Nation, and puts a lot of butts in the Staples Center seats. He’s also one of the most alienating figures in team sports that doesn’t necessarily elevate the level of his teammates and gets frustrated easily when others don’t step up their game. And with the crummy, though mostly well-meaning, teammates that Mitch Cupcake has surrounded him with, it’s not all that surprising that he’s throwing a tantrum.

When you’re winning, these distractions are a compelling story, part of the personality of the team. When you’re losing, they become a tired sideshow act. No matter whose side you support right now, I think any reasonably-objective Laker fan will acknowledge that the team doesn’t have a prayer of contending for a championship in the foreseeable future. So if you’re not going to put a team together that is equipped to win a ring, at least give us a team that won’t cause us to reach for the Tylenol every time SportsCenter comes on.

I’m not saying there’s any easy answers. If Cupcake pulls the trigger on a deal for that guy, the team is not going to get equal value back in talent. If Jerry “I dig chicks that could pass for my grandaughter” Buss is adamant about holding on to his cash cow, the aura surrounding the team promises to get even more toxic and destructive. The years of dysfunction and mismanagement that have plagued the franchise but were hidden from view by the tail end of the team’s successes are finally building up to an inevitable implosion. But it sure would be nice if everyone in the organization stopped pointing fingers and started looking back to how they rebuilt the team after the Showtime era ended. Losing sucks. Losing without dignity sucks even more.

Sedale Threatt? Tony Smith? Please come back. We're lost without you.

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – It Takes a Village to Feed a Hungry Chinese Guy

2007-06-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on June 15)

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line.

Chinese restaurants can generally be categorized into three different buckets: upscale “fusion” dining (aka tamed-down dishes with an "exotic" twist so that non-Chinese will eat them, but served on a pretty square plate so PF Chang’s can get away with charging $20 a dish); hole-in-the-wall authentic dining (aka no English spoken here, and no complaining about our Soup Nazi-esque service and very unsanitary conditions because you’re getting fed for less than $5); and Americanized dining (aka we’ll sell you unlimited quantities of sweet and sour pork and orange chicken for a good price even though there’s no way in hell we’d ever be able to sell this in China).

As an American-born Chinese, I lurve my authentic homestyle food. Good food is so important to the Chinese culture as an integral part of a balanced and harmonious life (even when it involves extra “elbow grease” in the food, certain unspeakable parts of animals, or unspeakable animals altogether). However, I hate going to hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants where I get condescending looks for not being able to speak a lick of Mandarin or Cantonese (thank goodness for bomb-ass friends that I can drag along to be translators). And there’s plenty of times that I need to find a cleaner and safer option for some of my non-Chinese friends who are plenty game to try something new, but don’t want to feel like they’re putting their life at risk by going to a restaurant with a ‘C’ or worse rating from the Department of Public Health. Or other times that I want to take a date out to a halfway decent restaurant and prove that I’m not as cheap and poor as my appearance may otherwise suggest.

Enter Tri-Village Chinese Cuisine in Irvine. With Irvine rapidly becoming Orange County’s answer to Monterey Park by virtue of its ever-expanding middle-class Chinese population, numerous restaurants and stores continue to cater to this demographic. Tri-Village has been open for about a year and a half and offers an authentic Chinese meal without having to sacrifice some of the familiar comforts of a Western-style restaurant.

Tri-Village’s menu is generally focused on Northern Chinese cuisine, though other regional styles such as Hunan, Hakka, and even Taiwanese dishes are also interspersed throughout the menu. About the only thing that isn’t on the menu are Cantonese dishes. Generally, I’m opposed to places that offer a wide range of cuisines because it usually means they’re good at none of them. But you know what? Chef Roger Lee by and large pulls it off. Whether your fancy is Shanghai-style dumplings (xiao long bao), Sichuan-style spicy tofu and minced pork (ma po dou fu), Wuxi-style braised pork spare ribs (jiang pai gu), Beijing-style green onion pancakes (cong you bing), or Taiwanese-style steamed chicken, there is something on the menu for you that is good to excellent. Tri-Village also serves clay pot dishes, slow-cooked to let the juices absorb for maximum flavor. The food may not measure up to the best individual restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley for a given specialty, but in very few places will you find the breadth of selection and depth of quality in the dishes as at Tri-Village.

Tri-Village does have some trademark dishes. The beef noodle soup was allegedly Jackie Chan’s favorite when Chef Lee was in Hong Kong. Filled with a healthy portion of wheat noodles, tender chunks of beef, and chinese cabbage, the soup has a rich beef broth that feels almost like gravy when it goes down the first time. Also worth a taste is the salt and peppered eggplant, which offers fried eggplant, heavily seasoned and served with minced pork. The eggplant seems to melt in your mouth by its soft texture and rich flavor, which are both balanced by the pork.

While most of Tri-Village’s menu items are more traditional fare, there are also a number of gourmet options, as well as American favorites. The miso-flavored cod is a noteworthy dish, grilled as opposed to steamed, and with a surprisingly sharp soy flavor from the miso marinade. The five spices shrimp is a variant of other popular dishes, crispy but with more subtle flavors than the sweet and pungent shrimp or the walnut prawns. And if you’re a little wary of the braised fish stomach or the sautéed eel, you can still get your fix of mu shu pork or kung pao chicken, or go light with some lettuce wraps.

Unlike many of its more poorly maintained counterparts, Tri-Village is extremely clean and accessible to English-only crowds. The décor is modern and the music is usually American (or Canadian, no joke, Bryan Adams’ Greatest Hits album was being played last time I visited). With only about twelve tables in the restaurant and no reservations, you may have to wait, as it gets crowded during dinner hours. However, you’ll know that you’ll at least be able to communicate with the help and maybe even get menu recommendations. Sure beats the “point and pray” method of ordering.

I like Tri-Village because I can go be Chinese without having to be Chinese. I may not have the burning desire to live out my days in China like Jack Bauer's dad, but I certainly want to eat like they do back in the homeland every once in awhile. Thankfully Tri-Village gives me another choice besides 2-item combo at Panda Express to cure my jones.

Tri-Village Chinese Cuisine
14121 Jeffrey Rd.
Irvine, CA 92620

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Carnitas Heaven (Combo Hell)

2007-06-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on June 8)

I’ll just say it simply: LA rocks Mexican food. With the largest population of Mexicans outside of Mexico City based in the City of Angels, we are blessed with a preponderance of high-quality, authentic grub (at least based on my uneducated Chinese taste buds). Granted, we’ve neutered it a little bit, spreading our gospel of burritos and hard-shell tacos, but nevertheless, it’s nearly impossible to go anywhere without stumbling across a good homestyle meal that sticks to your insides.

Because of the level of quality of Mexican food in the area, a restaurant must truly be exceptional to garner praise. Thus, I set my expectations extraordinarily high for my visit to El Farolito, Citysearch’s 2006 editorial choice for best Mexican food in Orange County, and a hugely popular pick on the Chowhound boards. (“Best” Mexican food in OC should of course be caveated, since authentic cuisine of any kind is so much harder to find in the ‘burbs). The verdict: mad love for the carnitas, everything else not so much.

Situated in Old Town Placentia – yeah, Old Towns actually do exist in OC, it’s not all tract homes and strip malls, even if 'old' means pre-1970 – El Farolito has the charm (read: minimalist décor, old building) of the typical family restaurant you’d find in East LA, with Rivera-like prints on the wall and friendly service. The menu is similar to what you’d find at most Mexican restaurants. However, according to both the servers and the menu, the carnitas are what make the place famous.

Problem is that carnitas are not typically one of my go-to dishes, since I’m not a heavy meat-eater. So me being the stubborn dolt that I am ordered the dreaded combination plate (also known as the gringo special) so I could try a few different things. Thankfully, my friend Amy wisely went with our waitress’ recommendation and got the carnitas.

The carnitas are served as is, alongside a healthy portion of refried beans and rice, as well as fresh pico de gallo. But the truth is that the carnitas don’t need any additional flavor. As Amy let me mooch off her plate, I was blown away by the tenderness and juiciness of the meat on my first bite. Absoultely succulent. The meat was heavily seasoned, which may be a turnoff for those that don’t like salty dishes, but was a huge bonus for me. If there was a Real World-style camera following my mouth, you would have likely seen my mouth pucker up in reaction to the sensory overload from the overwhelming savory goodness. Yet the meat wasn’t heavy at all, seemingly light on oil or lard. However, El Farolito also serves the carnitas crispy-style if you ask, for those that need that fried feeling in their stomach.

As far as my gringo special is concerned, it was pretty ordinary. The pork tamale was tasty (apparently they know their pork) but contained too much masa and not enough filling. The chicken enchilada was also pretty good, not overly doused with sauce, but a little sweeter than I prefer, as if it were trying to be a mole dish without taking out all of the tomatoes and chiles. Steer clear of the beef taco; apparently they sucked all of the moisture out of the ground beef and stuck it in the carnitas, as the meat was horribly dry and flavorless. Blech, combo plates.

The moral of the story? Stick to the specialty; it’s famous for a reason. And El Farolito has justifiably earned its reputation for its carnitas.

El Farolito
201 S. Bradford Ave.
Placentia, CA 92870

Photos by Amy Yang

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – A Deli-cious Way to Spend a Ditch Day

2007-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on June 1)

The daily grind of life can be a drag. And every so often, you need a place to blow off steam and forget about your worries for a little while. Tired soul, meet your rejuvenator – thy name is Hollingshead’s Delicatessen.

Now you’re thinking, who in their right mind would go to a deli to charge the batteries? Well, Hollingshead’s is no ordinary deli. Although Hollingshead’s has certain European-style deli tendencies, with sandwiches full of high-quality meats and cheeses, and other assorted imported food products, it’s also part beer boutique. It features more than 350 different styles of specialty beers, 15 frequently rotated taps across the spectrum of styles, and a small bar counter. But beyond the good food and beverage, it’s a place where regulars go to hang out, and the help treats you like family. It’s part Cheers, part Central Perk, part Monk’s Café.

Based in an Orange strip mall since opening in 1963, Hollingshead’s is family-owned and operated, with three generations of Hollingshead family members still working behind the counter or bussing tables. As native Wisconsinites (as evidenced by the wall-to-wall Green Bay Packer memorabilia, including green bar stools with yellow trim and ceiling posters of Brett Favre), they bring their Midwest friendliness to their customers: you can always count on a warm smile and conversation, as they enjoy visiting with patrons and catching up on life. And since they offer personalized beer mugs for their frequent visitors, it’s always a place where everybody knows your name.

Needing my own respite from the hustle, I took a “sick day” last Friday and spent a couple of hours at Hollingshead’s clearing my head (of brain cells), along with the other barflies that don’t work day-shifts or have employers which don’t mind a little drinky-drink during the lunch hour. I was warmly greeted by three different people while I perused the menu, which consists of a selection of eight types of meat, six types of cheese, and six types of bread, as well as custom sandwiches filled with assorted ingredients. I finally settled on a ‘demon’, an outstanding combination of smoked turkey, pastrami, and Jarlsberg swiss on an onion roll (pastrami is one of my guilty pleasures), and an ‘angel’, which was filled with roast beef, baked ham, and smoked gouda. The freshness of the ingredients livened up the taste buds which are normally dulled down by eating craptastic Subway sandwiches on a typical workday. I also got a quarter-pint of some excellent potato salad, which was mustard-based (much better than heavy mayo-based, imho) and seemed to be slightly sweetened with pickle juice.

Of course, many places offer great sandwiches. However, most of those places don’t give you the option of a quality draft microbrew to wash it down. Another great thing about Hollingshead’s is that they are as knowledgeable about their beer as they are friendly with their clientele. They’ll speak intelligently about the merits of the Green Flash Imperial IPA versus the Stone Imperial Russian Stout, or any of the beers in their large refrigerated section. They’re so passionate about beer that orders are assigned by beer brand, rather than number (using laminated beer labels rather than order tickets). And like any seller who takes their beer seriously, they give you a taster shot before pouring you a pint to make sure that your selection (or their recommendation) suits your palate. I am a medium-body guy, so they offered me up a seasonal Lagunitas Lucky 13 Red Ale, which had a slight hops bitter taste, but was also sweet and smooth, complementing my sandwiches. I finished my meal with an Allagash White, a Belgian-style wheat beer from Maine with a hint of orange and cardamom, that was a little less my taste but a good light dessert beer.

Now for the bad news. Since Hollingshead’s is a family institution, it’s closed on weekends. The store also shuts down at 8 pm on Monday through Thursday and at 9 pm on Friday. Thus, it will require a special daytime visit or suffering through rush hour traffic for anyone coming down from LA. And because everyone is so friendly, they are a bit more casual about service, so some patience may be required while you wait for them to attend to your order.

Despite these inconveniences, Hollingshead’s is well worth the effort if you can manage it. Not only did I get a good meal and top-notch drinks, but I was able to commiserate with other ~~drunks~~ strangers (men and women, young and old) who just came to chill out, complain about their bosses, and talk about UFC. It was like therapy; I went in feeling tired and stressed out and left feeling renewed for at least one more week. Or maybe it was just the beer talking.

Hollingshead’s Delicatessen
368 S. Main St.
Orange, CA 92868

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – A Window into Indian Food

2007-05-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on May 25)

As much as I love fine dining, there’s a certain satisfaction that comes with the comfort foods that I find at local hideaways that five-star restaurants can’t provide. While these local eateries will never make a Michelin guide, they possess a reliable meal, a distinct atmosphere, and the promise that they’ll never be overrun by trendy crowds and changing tastes. They’re the places that I identify with pride as one of “my spots”, a secret that only a select group of people know about.

Which gets me to this week’s restaurant: Bukhara Cuisine of India in Huntington Beach.

Bukhara is a classic neighborhood hole-in-the-wall restaurant that wins few points for ambience and service, but scores big on charm and meal quality. Specializing in Mughlai-style cuisine (ancient Northern Indian), Bukhara probably isn’t going to be the best Indian food you’ve ever had. As Ali Miller pointed out in Wednesday’s review of Electric Karma in Hollywood, LA is a bit lacking when it comes to high quality Indian cuisine. So while your meal may not transport you back to Delhi, you will get reasonably-priced good-quality food in a simple, no-frills environment.

Bukhara is a located in a strip mall across the street from the two-year old Bella Terra entertainment center. It is an interesting dichotomy to see the big megaplex theater and new stores and restaurants of Bella Terra opposite the rundown storefronts where Bukhara sits, tucked between a Subway and a Cingular Wireless outlet.

The inside of the restaurant looks just as dated as the outside. The décor looks like it was pulled from a vintage thrift store, except that I’m pretty sure that they’ve simply haven’t replaced it in the last 25 years. The tablecloths, seats, and wallpaper are a combination of a garish sea green and salmon, and the chandelier in the center of the restaurant only has about half of its bulbs working.

But if you can get over the initial shock to your eyes, you can enjoy the real charm of Bukhara. The restaurant is tiny, only accommodating about ten tables, and you can eavesdrop on pretty much any conversation, which may be a variety of topics given the motley crew of patrons that stop by. The best feature of the restaurant is the window in the middle of the restaurant that enables you to look into the small kitchen where the two chefs are busy at work. You can watch the chefs roll out paratha or skewer up big chunks of marinated chicken and lamb and cook them in the tandoor. Think of it kinda like going to Krispy Kreme, except without the free samples and conveyor belt.

Because everything is truly made to order, the dishes taste fresh and sharply seasoned. The menu says its tandoori dishes are served “sizzling hot on a bed of sautéed onions, bell peppers, and lemon”, which is no exaggeration since the food is literally brought straight from the oven. The naan is always piping hot (and I love me some naan). On my last trip, I started off with some vegetable pakoras (fritters), which were crisp, but not too greasy or heavy. I also gorged on an order of chicken saag (chicken cooked in cream spinach) and basmati rice. The big chunks of chicken were moist and tender, seasoned with garlic and cumin, while the creamed spinach was the hearty filler that nearly put me to sleep about an hour after I finished eating.

As far as menu items are concerned, Bukhara has the requisite selection of tandoori dishes and various vegetable paneer and masala dishes. Bukhara also offers a wide variety of lamb entrees, though I can’t vouch for those since I tend to avoid eating our fleeced friends. The house specialties include the standard chicken tikka masala, as well sliced lamb served in a green curry (lamb pasada) or ground lamb with onion gravy (keema curry).

Unlike some of the nicer Indian restaurants in LA which will cost you a pretty penny, the dishes at Bukhara are generally priced between $9 and $14 for reasonable sized portions. Bukhara also offers a daily lunch buffet for $8.95 ($10.95 on Sundays with champagne), and even does catering for its more conventional dishes. It’s fair to assume the moderate prices you pay reflect a discount for the lack of restaurant amenities. But that’s what makes it fun. I’d be more than happy to pay an extra dollar per dish for the food, but then I’d have to stop going there once it turned into just another Indian restaurant.

Bukhara Cuisine of India
7594 Edinger Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Ode to American Gladiators

2007-05-23T00:12:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on May 23)

It’s so good to have you back.

I know you’ve been back for a couple of months already. But I still can’t believe that you’re here again. I mean, seriously, we hadn’t seen each other in more than ten years! Where have you been all this time?

I fully admit, when we parted ways before, I was the one who was losing interest and looking for something more in my life. So when ESPN Classic told me that you were coming back, I didn’t know how to react. You brought so much joy to my teenage years, but I guess I got bored of the gladiator schtick. Maybe I just felt like I was outgrowing you back then. It wasn’t your fault, I was just trying to figure out what I wanted.

But these last few weeks, all of the quality time we’ve been able to spend together has made me realize how much I truly missed you. I didn’t appreciate how special you really are, with your unique combination of athletic prowess, cheesy personalities, and bad hair. That first weekend back in March when we reunited during your TV marathon, I found an immediate attraction like the first time we met. I was supposed to go out and run errands, but I couldn’t resist watching episode after episode.

I hope you don’t hold it against me that we split up all those years back. People change. Look at all the changes that you went through while we were together. Remember when we first met? You were at Universal Studios Hollywood on that dark, ghetto set with equipment that looked like it was purchased from a 99 Cent Store (seriously, medicine balls on the Eliminator?). There were only six gladiators then, and they weren’t very good. The worst was Malibu. He tried to play the surfer personality with a trademark hang loose sign, but would get constantly schooled by some middle-aged guy in a mullet on Breakthrough and Conquer or Powerball. Nitro and Gemini weren’t so bad. But Lace was definitely worth remembering - so fashionable.

What kept me interested in you were those crazy athletic events that I couldn’t find in anyone else, despite the questionable spandex outfits. I loved watching Assault – I remember trying to recreate my own game with friends by throwing tennis balls at each other while trying to hit a cheap homemade target. You also exposed me to the thrill of The Wall. I was so impressed when you junked the rope swing and added the cargo net and zipline to the Eliminator. Yes, things were good during those early years. When Larry Thompson yelled “Contenders, ready! Gladiators, ready!” my heart always skipped a beat.

I didn’t even mind that much when you tried to make yourself more flashy. I found Atlasphere and The Maze fun, if not a little quirky. And Slingshot was kinda cool ‘cause the contenders could sky on those bungee cords. Some of the new gladiators brought new energy to the show. Laser and Turbo were pretty dope, and when you brought Elektra on, well, she was just frackin’ hot. Even when things got a little stale, Mike Adamle always kept me entertained.

But somewhere along the way, my feelings started to change. You brought in all of these new gladiators that had lame nicknames like Hawk and Sabre and no personality. And while you did your best to innovate by introducing events like Sky Track or Pyramid, they just weren’t as interesting. Maybe the contenders just got too good and figured out how to beat the gladiators at their own games. All I know is by the time you got canceled, I wasn’t all that broken up about it.

Now that we’ve had all this time apart, I understand you so much better. You always portrayed yourself as a serious show, but never took yourself too seriously. It was a game, but it was first and foremost entertainment. These days, half the shows on TV these days are reality programs of some sort, and all of the participants have an agenda and a sense of self-importance. But not you. Your participants were there for the glory of competition. They weren’t looking for celebrity, they wanted a challenge. And the gladiators willingly played the foil. There was no tribal council, no boardroom, no rose ceremony. Only muscle-bound jocks beating up on hapless weekend warriors with wannabe Bobby Brown fades.

Maybe we can’t have the same kind of relationship like we used to. But I know there’s a place for you in my life. On my TiVo. Late night, you, me, and Human Cannonball. I hope you’ll take me back. I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

American Gladiators originally aired from 1989 through 1996. Since its rights were acquired by ESPN in March, it can now be seen on ESPN Classic on weekdays at 4 pm and 10 pm and on weekends from 6-8 am.

Lotto Fever

2007-05-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on May 22)

The odds of winning the California SuperLotto jackpot are 1 in 41,416,353.

The odds of the Clippers winning tonight’s NBA draft lottery are not quite as infinitesimal at 1 in 200, but still seem highly unlikely. The prize? It’s not quite a gazillion dollars, but in basketball terms, it is close: the chance to choose either ~~35-year old~~ Ohio St. center Greg Oden and Texas swingman Kevin Durant, two of the most hyped players in several years to enter the draft, whom many believe have the ability to singlehandedly turn a franchise’s fortunes around.

When we last left the Clippers, they had kept their season alive until the last game, when a win by the Golden St. Warriors officially eliminated the Clips from playoff contention. What that meant was that the Clippers were the best team not to make the playoffs, and consequently given the lowest possibility of winning the draft lottery (only teams that finish out of the playoffs are eligible for the lottery). In other words, they sucked just bad enough to not put themselves in a position to get better.

For non-basketball fanatics, the NBA draft lottery is used to designate the top three picks in the June 28 draft. The teams are ranked based on reverse order of finish, with the team with the worst record getting the highest number of combinations of a set of four ping-pong balls. Each subsequent team gets fewer combinations, and thus a lower probability of winning.

This NBA season featured more outright tanking than usual because of the potential of drafting Oden and Durant, with teams like Memphis, Boston, and Milwaukee purposely resting their best players in order to lose games. However, while Memphis had the worst record and received the best chance of getting the number one pick, the Grizzlies only have a 25% chance of actually winning it. It is, however, 50 times better than the Clippers’ odds.

The good news for Clipper Nation in an otherwise disappointing season is that the draft is extremely deep. Last year’s implementation of an age minimum, which prevented high schoolers from going directly to the pros, created an artificially-strong class of rookies for this upcoming season. So with the Clippers likely to pick 14th overall, barring a lottery miracle which vaults them into the top three, there will still be some quality players available that can help the team immediately.

And the team certainly needs help. The Clips obviously took a major step back by not advancing to the playoffs after their breakthrough 2006 season. The biggest hole appears to be at point guard, preferably one who can shoot the three-pointer given the team’s lack of outside shooting ability (29th in made 3-pointers). After the horrific injury suffered by Shaun Livingston, the Clippers are suddenly super-thin at the position, with Livingston’s recovery uncertain and Sam Cassell barely able to stay upright. Jason Hart did an admirable job filling in after being picked up off of waivers, but he’s better suited for a backup role, as is Daniel Ewing. The problem is that the draft is relatively weak at point guard. However, some mock drafts are projecting All-American point guard Acie Law IV as the pick here, a gutsy player who plays more like a combo guard with his shooter’s mentality and terrific scoring ability.

Of course, the Clips could also use another frontcourt player to take some of the pressure off of Elton Brand. The team tied up big money in long-term contracts for starting center Chris Kaman and backup center/forward Tim Thomas, and they both played like ass all year. Although the team likes the potential of rookie Paul Davis, it could use a more versatile athlete that can play the power forward or small forward. Potential picks here could be Georgia Tech freshman Thaddeus Young, a raw forward with a ton of upside but questionable drive; Florida St. senior Al Thornton, a 3rd team All-America and dynamic scorer from both the post and the wing; and Georgetown junior forward Jeff Green, also a 3rd team All-America with less explosiveness than Young or Thornton but great all-around skills.

While the draft lottery used to be an annual rite of passage for GM Elgin Baylor and the Clippers, the franchise is no longer a bottomfeeder and doesn’t need a savior. What it does need is a player that can contribute right away and help propel the team back into the playoffs and out of the lottery next season. Given the Clippers’ recent track record with first round busts, this is no small task. But if the Clips somehow manage to buck the odds and hit the lottery tonight, they’ll be in a position that even Baylor will have a hard time screwing up.

The NBA Draft Lottery results will be revealed prior to the Spurs-Jazz game on ESPN at 5:30 pm tonight.

Flickr photo by MarkyBon

Hey Daddy-O, Let's Go to the Drive-In!

2007-05-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on May 21)

Out here in Tinseltown, movies are part of our livelihood. They are meant to be an event, an experience, a true artform to be appreciated. It is ironic then, that the one of the great moviegoing traditions of yesteryear, the drive-in theater, has been nearly wiped out from the Southern California landscape.

But this past weekend marked a comeback of sorts with the grand opening of the Star-Vu Drive-In in Costa Mesa. Located at the Orange County Fairgrounds, the Star-Vu is the first drive-in to run in Orange County since the Highway 39 Drive-In in Westminster was razed in 1997 to build a Wal-Mart. (Ain’t progress grand?) Currently, the Vineland Drive-In in City of Industry is the only other drive-in in LA/OC.

The Star-Vu runs off of an inflatable, 65’ by 33’ screen, with a capacity of 300 vehicles. It has the usual amenities of a drive-in, with a Fairgrounds-operated concession stand in the back, as well as a kiddie play area. The audio is transmitted via FM radio. Tickets run $8.50 per person and $5 for kids (with a $.50 surcharge if you purchase online), and the theater plays two shows a night, seven days a week.

I was able to catch the 8 pm Saturday showing of Shrek the Third, and while the movie left something to be desired (read: save your money and catch it on Netflix), the uniqueness of the drive-in experience still made it a worthwhile trip. The energy in the sold-out crowd made it feel more like a tailgate party, with kids running around and people hanging out while the sun went down. There were a lot of people who came out in their pickups and watched in the bed of the truck to make it an evening under the stars, as well as countless others in the standard-issue Orange County big-ass SUVs and minivans that popped the trunk open. Of course, because of the theater’s vehicle policy, I was able to secure some prime front center seats in my Accord because all of the big cars are required to park in the back or on the sides.

There are some other distinct advantages of drive-ins. For one, you can actually talk during the movie without disrupting other people, particularly when things get boring (and there were unfortunately far too many of those moments during Shrek). And while it’s not technically legal, it’s quite a bit easier to smuggle in your own refreshments since you don’t have to try to fit a sandwich in your pocket or a bag of popcorn under your shirt.

The major drawback of the Star-Vu is the poor contrast ratio of the screen. The picture (not surprisingly for an outdoor venue) isn’t super bright, and it’s difficult to make out the screen images during scenes at night or in the dark. With a movie like Shrek where the animators stick little hidden jokes in the periphery, it’s a bit harder to keep tabs on what’s going on. Still, the picture quality is actually quite good for a projector of that magnitude, though it’s nowhere close to as sharp as being in a real theater.

Now, some tips for those planning on making the trip down to Costa Mesa. Make sure to purchase your tickets online, as the limited capacity and high initial demand will make it near impossible to drive up and get tickets. Also, get there early to secure a good viewing location. My viewing angle was fine since I was in the third row of cars, but the back rows are like sitting in the rear of the Hollywood Bowl (i.e., you need binoculars).

With all of the sprawling megaplexes currently dominating the industry, the Star-Vu definitely brings a refreshing twist to movie-viewing. Though most of us are too young to remember when drive-ins were the thing to do on a Saturday night, it’s nice to be able to restore the tradition in the 21st century. It will be even more enjoyable when they start showing some better movies.

Star-Vu Drive-In
Orange County Fairgrounds
Enter at Gate 2 (Fairview/Vanguard)
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

photo by Oberonia Photography
video by Sal Gomez of the Southern California Drive-In Movie Society who has a review and photos here

What’s Cookin’ Behind the Curtain – Going Loco for Calamari

2007-05-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on May 18)

LAist has been giving a lot of love recently to the many fine eating establishments that exist all over the basin. No matter what type of cuisine you like, there’s a long list of restaurants that can meet the grade.

However, there’s also been a noticeable lack of Orange County representation in these reviews. True, 95% of the non-five-star restaurants in OC are chains not worthy of being reviewed, unless you want to debate whether the chicken marsala is better at Cheesecake Factory or Macaroni Grill. But contrary to popular opinion, there are some great eats down behind the orange curtain if you know where to look.

So, in an effort to help inform the eager LA foodie, and to throw a bone to our loyal suburban readers, LAist will be running a weekly feature on the best local eateries in OC that are worth a visit.

This week's installment takes us down to the beautiful shores of Laguna Beach. Let’s face it, is there a better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon than popping down to the beach and catching some rays? Each of our local beaches has something to offer, whether it be the pier at Santa Monica, the “entertainment” at Venice, or the surf at San Clemente. At Laguna, it’s the art galleries. And Taco Loco.

Taco Loco is a glorified taco stand about a half mile south of main beach on PCH. From the outside, it looks like any other beach shack, with no inside seating and a handful of little tables on the patio. The staff all wears tie-dye shirts and sport some nappy dreds. But the food is far from ordinary beach fare.

As Carrie pointed out yesterday, LAist has an unhealthy obsession with tacos. But when you have access to so many fantastic taco joints, why wouldn’t you love tacos? As far as Taco Loco is concerned, it’s all about the kick-ass blackened calamari tacos.

My friend Amy introduced me to this place, and I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical at first about how exceptional Taco Loco could be. Admittedly, I love calamari and I love tacos, so why wouldn’t it work? Oh, yes. It works pretty damn well. The calamari is cooked perfectly so it retains its chewy, but firm texture, with homemade seasoning. What really makes the taco is the addition of a homemade guacamole with diced avocadoes, diced tomatoes, and cilantro (sort of a guac de gallo) that provides a cool zesty contrast to the kick of the calamari.

But Taco Loco isn’t your usual taco stand in that it offers a wide assortment of dishes. Besides the standard Mexican fare, it serves everything from carnitas nachos to mushroom and tofu fajitas to blackened swordfish salad to ceviche. The quesadillas are served with half flour, half blue corn tortillas, which give surprisingly distinct tastes when sampled with identical filling. And if you don’t like tortillas, they serve a full complement of “burgers”, which consist of the same ingredients as the tacos except on a hamburger bun.

The nice thing about Taco Loco is that the ingredients are fresh, especially relative to the usual taco stand, where you don’t really want to see what’s behind the counter. Of course, this should be unsurprising given the “natural” vibe that the place throws off. Indeed, besides all of the standard meat and seafood dishes, all dishes are offered with tofu or veggie phish. Hemp burgers and even hemp brownies are proudly displayed on the menu.

And like any true taco stand, Taco Loco is open late, until 2 am on Friday through Sunday, and midnight the rest of the week. So whether it’s after a night out at the bars or a little skinny dip in the Pacific, when you get a case of the late night munchies, you can get your fix.

Even though the food is awesome, it’s the entire experience that makes Taco Loco worth the trip. There’s something divine about watching the sun set over the horizon, breathing the ocean air, while popping a fresh taco with a cold bottle of Dos Equis (just be sure to sit at the tables behind the sidewalk so you don’t get ticketed for public alcohol consumption). All of the artists that inhabit Laguna Beach couldn’t paint a better picture than that.

Taco Loco
640 S. Coast Hwy
Laguna Beach, CA 92651

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

2007-05-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on May 3)

Saturday is going to be huge.

I’m not even talking about Cinco de Mayo. Granted, Cinco de Mayo will be a huge day of cultural celebration for the many Mexican-Americans in LA, as well as the many boozers who will be, um, celebrating in their own way by double fisting Coronas.

What I’m talking about is a boxing match.

Wait, a boxing match? Seriously?

Yes, I know, boxing is full of corruption and politics, more notable for its shady promoters like Don King or Hollywood caricatures like Rocky Balboa than anything that actually happens in the ring. And the action is boring and slow as compared to Mixed Martial Arts like UFC and PRIDE fighting. Quite frankly, boxing is soon to go the way of the dinosaur, the dodo, and professional hockey (what, the NHL still exists, you say?).

For one day at least, things will be different. Saturday night's fight between hometown hero (or antihero, depending on your perspective) Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is not just the biggest story in boxing in several years (and quite possibly the last important story about boxing ever), and not just one of the biggest sports stories of the year, but one of the biggest events of the year. The fight itself is only a small part of a broader construct about culture, social class, and history.

From a boxing perspective, both men are great champions, having dominated the sport like few men over the last 25 years. At 34, De La Hoya is the aging, past-his-prime superstar, winner of an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and the only boxer in history to win a world championship at six weight classes. He’s known for being a tough competitor in the ring, though he has only fought once since September 2004. On the other hand, the 30-year old Mayweather is widely considered the best current pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and is undefeated as a professional. He’s known for his exceedingly fast hands and strong defense, but has been criticized for just doing enough to win rather than fighting his hardest.

But the more compelling reasons for caring about this fight are found in who the fighters are and what they represent. De La Hoya is the “Golden Boy”, the biggest draw in the entire sport; he’s Madison Av. He’s not only a star inside the ring, but outside the ring as well, dabbling in acting, singing (a Grammy-nominated Latin Pop CD), fashion, and business. He’s got model-like looks and is always well-spoken in front of the camera (at least for a boxer).

Mayweather is the “Pretty Boy”, one of the cockiest and brashest characters in the sport; he’s much more 8 Mile. While De La Hoya has tried to keep things civil, Mayweather has been talking junk to Oscar to his face, or on camera every chance he’s gotten. His focus is solely on his craft. Floyd is also good friends with 50 Cent, who will be accompanying him to the ring on Saturday, and has reportedly wagered $1 million on a Mayweather win.

The contrasts go beyond personality. De La Hoya is a Mexican-American, born in Montebello and raised in East LA with meager resources but a strong family supporting him. He’s both revered in the Latino community for his widespread success and his financial investments in Latino neighborhoods, as well as hated because of the perceived notion that he’s become somewhat of a corporate sellout and turned his back on his roots by moving to Puerto Rico (he married a Boricua singer in 2001). And he sees the fight not just as in terms of his place in boxing history, but as an opportunity to expand his Golden Boy Productions promotions business and redefine boxing.

Mayweather is African-American, born in Michigan and raised in a boxing family with an, er, interesting relationship. His dad, Floyd Sr., was a pro boxer and his trainer and agent. At least until Floyd Jr. fired his own dad from both jobs, and gave the training responsibilities to his uncle, Roger. (Oh by the way, Floyd Sr. trained Oscar for six years and nearly hired Floyd Sr. to be his trainer for this fight before good ol’ Dad wanted too much money - nice) You could say that the only thing Floyd Jr. is loyal to is his own legacy, carrying that perpetual chip on his shoulder. And the only thing he cares about is proving that he is the defining fighter (as opposed to superstar) of his generation.

So the question is, which guy sounds like your kind of guy? The classy gentleman or the edgy thug? The polished businessman with an agenda or the emotional fighter on a simple mission to win. The guy who scrapped to make himself a success, or the guy who has been groomed for this moment since he was born? The legend or the challenger to the throne?

Regardless of where you stand, it will make for compelling drama. Especially after you’ve thrown down a 12-pack.

Me? Team Pretty Boy.

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Junior Middleweight World Championship
MGM Grand, Las Vegas
PPV telecast starts at 6 pm

AP photo by Jae C. Hong

Can't We All Just Get Along - 2007

2007-04-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 29)

Today marks the fifteen year anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in Los Angeles history: the 1992 LA Riots.

On April 29, 1992, four police officers charged in the controversial 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King were acquitted, sending shockwaves through a community already in unrest. Anger had been rising over perceived racism by LAPD, poor economic conditions, and friction between minority groups in South Central. Nevertheless, no one could have anticipated the resulting response to the trial.

For five days, all of the stored up bitterness, resentment, and frustrations were unleashed in a cathartic rage on the city as the rest of the world watched. Anarchy reigned as whole blocks of businesses were set on fire, people were carjacked and randomly beaten, and rampant shooting broke out against rescue workers and between shopkeepers and looters. And of course, the enduring image of the riots was the brutal beating of truck driver Reginald Denny at the intersection of Florence and Normandie.

By the time the National Guard finally regained control, 53 people were dead, over 1,100 building were destroyed, 10,000 people were arrested, and nearly $1 billion in damage had been caused. The worst riots in recent US history. A mighty city left with deep physical scars, but even deeper emotional wounds.

Time posted a special retrospective report on the Riots, profiling and interviewing some of the key figures involved in the events, which is worth a read if only just to remember how things were fifteen years ago.

Do you remember where you were? I was a teenager at the time and remember being glued to the TV with a mixture of horror and fascination at the events as they unfolded. While I was nowhere close to any of the burn zones, I feared for the safety of extended family members that lived on the borders of South Central, particularly being Asian-American. I was too young and unaware to see the riots from any perspective beyond the overplayed race angle, whether Black and White or Black and Asian. But I was struck by the amount of perceived marginalization and mistreatment that could cause somebody to act with such anger.

Now, in 2007, I wonder how far our city and our society have truly come in mending the fences during these last fifteen years. Not just between races. Between classes. Between religious groups. Between genders. Between straight and gay.

I would like to think that we’ve come a long way, that every day our society grows more culturally aware, more tolerant, and more respective but respectful of the differences between our fellow man. I see our city with a Latino mayor, two of our leading presidential candidates being an African-American man and a White woman, and greater percentages of minorities rising to positions of power and prominence in the business sector and in Hollywood, and think that maybe we’re seeing people for who they are, not just what they are.

But then I am also reminded of things like the bigoted comments of public figures like Don Imus, Ann Coulter, and Michael Richards, the protests of citizens feeling overwhelmed by immigrant influences in their neighborhoods, and a rising income gap between classes. I notice that out of the thirty or so people that comprise senior management at my unnamed employer, only three are women and only three are non-white (with no non-white women). And despite being arguably the most multicultural city in the US, I see the widespread segregation that is so clearly pronounced that you could take a Crayola and color code a Thomas Bros by neighborhood (here’s a USC study based on the 2000 census), letting me know that there is still much work to be done.

Then I look at my own life and see that the majority of my friends are like me, Asian-Americans from middle to upper-middle class backgrounds, or from a similar Christian faith. Like anyone else, I naturally gravitate towards those with whom I can relate and have a shared experience and interest. I spend my time in those places which are safe and comfortable. But safe and comfortable means familiar, and familiar means status quo. And by holding on to the status quo, progress can’t ever happen.

The world has changed a lot since April 29, 1992 and LA has repaired itself and moved forward from that horrible episode in its past. Doesn’t mean those issues have just magically disappeared in 2007. Hopefully the lessons of the Riots will remind us that we don’t have to wait for the city to burn to ash before getting out there and being an advocate for change. There’s still room for progress. Starting with me.

Break-Up Therapy Trailer

2007-04-20T00:06:00.000-07:00

Here's the trailer for the upcoming short film Break-Up Therapy, featuring yours truly, directed by David Ngo and produced by Double Oh Three Productions. The film will be premiering at VC Filmfest 2007 on May 9.

It Ends Tonight

2007-04-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 18)

It all comes down to this. One night. A grueling, six-month season, all decided in 48 minutes on the court.

Unfortunately for the Clippers, the court in question will be the Rose Garden in Portland, where the Golden St. Warriors play the Blazers. A win for the Warriors and they advance to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. A loss opens the door for the Clips to potentially sneak in if they take care of business against the Hornets tonight at Staples. Since the Warrior game tips off a half-hour before the Clipper game, the Clips will be able to see their postseason lives unfolding in front of them on the out-of-town scoreboard.

We could wax poetic for hours on how the Clippers somehow beat Phoenix, the second-best team in the NBA playing their regular eight-man rotation, on the road last night, yet lost at home two days earlier to Sacramento, one of the weakest teams playing their young scrubs off the bench. This has been a microcosm of the season for the Clips: inconsistent effort and performance, leading to disappointing results. But it doesn’t matter now.

The only thing that does matter is whether the Warriors can close the deal and take advantage of the gift opening that the Clippers gave them on Sunday. On paper, it seems like a safe bet. The Warriors have won eight of nine, including their last four by an average of 21 points per game. The Blazers have lost nine of twelve, and have most of their top players sidelined, including likely rookie-of-the-year Brandon Roy, Zach Randolph, and LaMarcus Aldridge.

What can give Clipper Nation hope is the fact that it’s the Warriors, a team that hasn’t been in this position in more than a decade, and has rivaled the Clippers in terms of recent ineptitude. Warrior fans may be supremely confident, but there’s always a fatalistic sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It would be somehow appropriate if the Warriors whittled away a season where they exceeded expectations by choking in their last game.

Yes, this is the sad state of being a Clipper fan. Depending on someone to commit a bigger choke than you. Now please excuse me while I go get my Baron Davis voodoo doll and pour myself a big glass of haterade.

AP photo by Paul Connors

Desperately in Need of a Pick Up

2007-04-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 16)

So a guy goes to a bar with a bunch of his buddies. Let’s call him Elton. He hasn’t historically had a lot of success with the ladies, but the last time he visited this bar, things worked out really well for him.

He and his buddies have been making the rounds, working the room and evaluating the talent. Some of his buddies, like Tim, Steve, and Tracy, are getting play almost immediately. Meanwhile, Elton was a little off his game at the beginning, but he’s recovered nicely. In particular, one very attractive woman has really been digging him, laughing at his jokes and giving him the look.

There’s another guy, Baron, who’s been eyeing the same girl that Elton is feeling. But she’s not feeling Baron like she feels Elton. All Elton needs to do to close the deal is buy her one more drink and take her out on to the dance floor.

As Elton waits for the bartender to order another round, he starts talking up the fact that he lives at home with his mom. The woman is thrown off by this and starts turning her attention back to Baron, who’s ready to move in and capitalize on Elton’s blunder. Elton realizes his mistake, but now sees his only chance to win the woman back is for one of his boys, Dirk, who’s already set for the night, to go over and cock-block Baron.

Elton Brand and the Clippers were in prime position to make a return trip to the playoffs. After their huge comeback win against the Lakers last Thursday and easy win over the Blazers on Friday, the Clippers had a simple task to accomplish their season-long goal. Just win three straight games against unmotivated opponents: a last-place Sacramento team who had lost seven out of nine; a Phoenix team likely to be resting its starters with the second seed locked up; and a NO/OKC team that had just been eliminated from contention. Buy the drink and ask the girl for a dance.

One problem. The Clips somehow managed to bungle this slam-dunk opportunity by losing to the lowly Kings yesterday, on their home court no less. By doing so, the Clippers allowed Baron Davis and the Warriors to pass them in the standings for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Now, with only two games left in the season, the Clips can only make it to the playoffs if Golden St. loses one of its last two games and the Clippers win out.

The worst part? The Clippers gave it up in spectacularly bad fashion. Sacramento did everything in its power to give the Clippers the game, ~~purposely putting a crappy team out on the court~~ playing its young players for most of the second half. But in spite of the Kings’ best efforts to lose and improve their position in the draft lottery, the Clips worked even harder to choke it away.

The Clips fell behind by as many as 24 against a lineup prominently featuring ~~D-league~~ all-stars like John Salmons, Quincy Douby, Justin Williams, and Francisco Garcia before fighting back in the fourth quarter to make it respectable. LA made countless defensive lapses resulting in wide-open threes (Sac had ten 3s) and careless turnovers directly leading to Kings’ buckets (25 points off of 17 TOs). Just an all-out embarrassment considering the stakes.

So now the Clippers will be stuck scoreboard watching on Tuesday and Wednesday night. The Warriors’ remaining games are with league-leading Dallas and at bottom-feeder Portland. Realistically, with Golden St. playing such inspired ball (seven wins in its last eight games), only the Mavs have a chance to pull off a win, so Clipper Nation has to cheer hard for Dirk Nowitzki and company. The problem is that the Mavs clinched homecourt advantage a long time ago and don’t need to go all out. The one positive is that Dallas coach Avery Johnson is trying to keep his team sharp and may elect to play his starters close to normal minutes.

Of course, if the Clippers have another repeat of yesterday, it won’t matter what the Warriors do the rest of the way. The Clips will be the ones leaving the bar alone at the end of the night.

AP photo by Chris Pizzello

A Whole New Ball Game

2007-04-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 13)

This isn’t normally how the script goes.

For the first 30 minutes, all signs were pointing to the Lakers reasserting themselves as the team in LA, clinching their playoff spot, with the Clippers laying an egg in their most important game of the season. Kobe was scoring from all over the court, getting to the line, and creating easy shots for his teammates. When Kobe drained a three-pointer from the wing for his 38th point with eight minutes left in the third quarter, giving the Lakers a 17-point lead, the fat lady was already warming her pipes.

Same ol’ Lakers. Same ol’ Clippers. Business as usual.

Except that these aren’t your father’s Lakers. And these aren’t your father’s Clippers either.

The Clippers, having blown several big leads lately, responding to the challenge by slowly and methodically chipping away at the lead behind the low-post game of Elton Brand and the constant penetration of Corey Maggette. But Kobe, with some help from (surprise!) Smush Parker and Mo Evans, fended off the Clippers comeback efforts, and the Lakers maintained a comfortable ten-point lead with eight and a half to go. Kobe had 50 points at that point, and the only question seemed to be whether he was going to finish with 65 or 75.

Except Kobe didn’t score the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the Lakers’ season-long shortcoming, its matador defense, reared its ugly head once again. With the floodgates open, the Clippers ran their offense to perfection with high pick and rolls and inside-out post to perimeter play, slicing and dicing their way to a 26-8 finish to the game and a stunning 118-110 win.

How did this happen? Start with a record night from Maggette, who took advantage of the referee’s liberal whistles to secure 24 free-throw attempts, repeatedly launching his body into traffic en route to a career-high 39 points. Mix in some Brand, who had his way with the Kwame-less Laker frontcourt (Laker fans, did you ever imagine you would miss #54 this much?) for 32 and 12.

But for Clipper Nation, the biggest factor was the return of Sam Cassell, Billy Crystal’s favorite senior citizen. Despite having been sidelined for all but seventeen minutes in the team’s last ten games because of his geriatric back, he decided to suit up because of the magnitude of the game. Cassell is still the heart of the Clippers, and it was obvious that the team responded to his presence down the stretch, playing confidently despite their deficit. The Lakers raced out to their big lead in part because of the relentless defensive pressure (yes, you read that correctly) that Laker guards were putting on Jason Hart, causing numerous turnovers and fast-break points, as well as completely disrupting the Clipper offense. With Cassell on the court for the bulk of the fourth quarter, the tempo totally changed.

In Lakerland, it was a scary sight indeed to watch Kobe do his thing on offense and have it still not be enough to deliver a win over a mediocre opponent. As TNT analyst Doug Collins pointed out in the second quarter, just as Kobe was starting on his scoring binge, it felt like one of those nights when Kobe wasn’t going to let his team lose.

Yet the Lakers lost. Kobe couldn’t deliver down the stretch. When was the last time he went scoreless in the last eight-plus minutes of a close game of this importance? The Clippers threw two and sometimes three defenders at him, desperate to make someone else beat them, even if it meant giving up completely uncontested shots. Earlier in the game, guys like Luke Walton and Ronny Turiaf, along with Parker and Evans, were making some great energy plays, opening up repeated easy hoops inside. But when the game got tight, the energy waned, the jumpers got tighter, and the putbacks got tougher. No one stepped up.

It is these inconsistent offensive contributions from the supporting cast that are highlighted when the Lakers don’t play defense, and ultimately don’t win games. The way the Lakers are playing, they aren’t going to win by clamping down on D. They’re going to have to outscore their opponents, a la Phoenix, Golden St., or Denver. But it’s hard to do that when only one guy is doing the scoring.

With last night’s result, the playoff race just got a whole lot more interesting. The Lakers’ lead for the seventh seed is down to a game-and-a-half, and only one in the loss column. The Clippers regained the eighth spot, pulling into a tie with the Warriors. The Hornets are still lurking a game behind those two.

Tonight, it gets fun. For all of the potential significance of last night’s outcome, it all gets thrown out the window if the Clippers don’t build off the momentum or the Lakers shrug it off and right the ship. The Clippers should have a slam dunk game against the lowly Blazers at Staples (7:30, FSW2), while the Lakers travel to Phoenix for a date with the mighty Suns (7:30, ESPN). With the Hornets facing the Nuggets at 5 pm, and the Warriors in Sacramento at 7 pm, the playoff race may start to take some definition by the end of the night. Or it may be even more muddled.

Only one way to find out. Tune in to cheer on your teams. Unless you’ve got a hot date or something.

AP photo by Jeff Lewis

Not Clutch

2007-04-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 11)

The difference between great teams and pretty-good teams, or pretty-good teams and mediocre teams is small. It’s a demonstrated ability to make plays at critical junctures of games. Great teams do it often, pretty-good teams do it sometimes, mediocre teams only occasionally. Memphis Grizzlies, never.

The Clippers’ deflating three-point overtime loss to the NO/OKC Hornets last night once again reflected the teams’ inability to make the plays in the clutch, an ability that has by and large eluded them all season, even during this most recent stretch of winning, and the primary cause for their current position of ninth place in the West, a half-game behind Golden St. Last night, it was critical mental errors that led to their demise.

In what is becoming too familiar a tale, the Clips raced out to a first-half double-digit lead, but were thoroughly outplayed in the third quarter. Trailing most of the way in the fourth, they turned to their superstar Elton Brand, who responded with a Herculean effort, resembling the EB who carried the Clips to the second round last year. Brand made shot after clutch shot, regardless of the Hornets’ defense en route to a season high 37 points. Brand’s dunk with 9.2 seconds left tied the game.

But on the ensuing inbounds pass, newbie point guard Jason Hart inexplicably fouled Chris Paul around halfcourt, giving the Hornets’ star point guard the go-ahead two free-throws. Complete mental breakdown. Throughout LA, Clipper Nation could be heard throwing things at the TV. Brand was there to rescue the Clips again, hitting a baseline jumper with 1 second left to send the game in overtime.

In overtime, the Clippers apparently developed an allergic reaction to rebounding. Down by three in the last two minutes, the team stood idly by and watched the Hornets’ David West grab uncontested offensive rebounds and putbacks on consecutive possessions to effectively ice the game. It’s one thing if a guy makes a great hustle play or an uber-athletic play to get the ball. It’s another thing entirely if no one bothers to lay a hand on a guy who scored 33 freakin’ points. Boxing out is a skill that is learned at the Y in grade school. But the Clippers were apparently too tired or too lazy to find a man and stick their asses into his midsection. Meanwhile, Clipper Nation was grabbing their throats in agony.

The rest of the Western playoff contenders were idle on Tuesday. The Hornets climbed to within a game of the Warriors and a half-game of the Clippers with the win. The Clips now face a virtual must-win game on Thursday against the Lakers, in what is perhaps the most important meeting between the squads ever, given the stakes for both teams (which has never been the case, um, ever). While the Lakers are still two games up on the Warriors and two-and-a-half on the Clippers, a loss significantly tightens up the race. Since the Lakers are playing poorly not only in crunch time, but most of the game (particularly on defense) these days, it promises to be a highly competitive affair.

AP photo by Sue Ogrocki

The CW (Clipper Weekly): Fight to the Finish

2007-04-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 10)

Current Record: 37-39, T-3rd Pacific, T-8th West

Last Week:

The Clippers entered the week with the opportunity to take control of their playoff fate and to put themselves in the drivers’ seat for one of the three remaining playoff spots. This morning, they are left still in control of their destiny, but very much in a fight for survival.

Things started well with a narrow victory over the Lakers on Wednesday, piling on to their co-tenants’ recent woes, and continuing the Clips’ overall strong play. And for most of Saturday’s game against Denver, the team appeared to making a statement about their legitimacy as the strongest of these final playoff contenders. With EB doing his thing down on the block, Corey getting to the line at will, and Kaman sending Denver shots back, the Clips took an eight-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. A Clipper win seemed all but certain, given that the team came in with a 31-2 record when ahead after three quarters.

Yes, that’s 31-2.

But during a twelve-minute stretch which could potentially define their season, the Clips saw it all slip through their fingers. The jump shots that were going in all game started finding iron. And in a nightmare scenario, Allen Iverson, the guy who LAist had clamored the front office to trade for, went off, singlehandedly outscoring the Clips 15-11 over a nine-minute stretch, getting the Nuggets back to a tie game with under a minute to play.

Nevertheless, the Clippers were in position to win after a Brand putback gave them a two-point lead with 43 seconds left. But in a finish eerily reminiscent of their lone loss over the previous two weeks against Houston, unheralded scrub Linas Kleiza made a go-ahead three-pointer (his only field goal of the game) from the corner. Maggette was then stripped by AI on the other end on a potential game-winning drive, and that was all she wrote.

Insult to injury was added when the Clippers had to travel to Dallas last night and take on the best team in the NBA on their court. Playing shorthanded not only without Cassell and Livingston, but also Tim Thomas, who sprained his wrist on an awkward fall against Denver, the Clips simply didn’t have the firepower to run with the Mavs. The loss dropped the Clippers into a tie with the Warriors for the final playoff spot.

Quick Take/Playoff Push:

With only a week and a half to go, every night is going to be important in determining who earns the final three spots in the Western Conference. Here is a quick rundown of the remaining schedules of the Clippers and their main contenders. LAist will be checking in daily the rest of the way to keep you informed, including updates on the most pivotal team: the Sacramento Kings. They play four of the five contenders and have a major chance to be the proverbial spoiler.

#6 Denver (41-36): at Utah (48-29), at New Orleans/Oklahoma City (36-41), at Memphis (19-59), vs. Minnesota (32-45), at San Antonio (56-21)

The Nuggets have caught fire at the right time with a six-game winning streak, including three wins against the LA teams over the last week to distance themselves from the pack. Though arguably the seventh seed is a more favorable draw (Phoenix instead of San Antonio), Denver is happy to finally be living up to the potential that was forecast after making the AI trade. Nothing is guaranteed in this league, but likely wins against Memphis and Minnesota should be enough to lock down the #6 spot since the Nuggets hold the tiebreakers over both the Lakers and Clippers.

#7 Lakers (40-38): vs. Clippers (38-39), at Phoenix (58-19), vs. Seattle (31-47), at Sacramento (31-45)

The Lakers are on the other extreme as the Nuggets, falling faster than Britney’s Q-rating, losing four out of five. Kobe is finding it lonely without any consistent frontcourt help, and Smush Parker is causing a stir because he thinks he merits playing time, despite the fact that he sucks. The last two should be winnable games, but if the Lakers don’t get this next one against the Clippers, they could be facing the huge negative momentum of a potentially unthinkable collapse, given that they aren’t likely to beat Phoenix with the Suns still playing for homecourt in the second round. I can only imagine the insanity at Arco Arena next Wednesday if the Kings have the chance to exercise (and exorcise) their inferiority complex and knock their despised rivals out of the playoffs.

#8 Warriors (38-40): at Sacramento (31-45), vs. Minnesota (32-45), vs. Dallas (64-13), at Portland (31-46)

The Warriors have really played some good ball since getting their full roster back, running teams off the court literally with the fast-paced Nellie ball in full effect. They have the easiest schedule of the contenders, with none of their upcoming opponents likely to put up a huge fight: the Mavs will be resting their stars for the playoffs and the other teams will be tanking to secure a better draft position. The Warriors lose the tiebreaker to the Lakers on head-to-head, but will win the tiebreaker with the Clippers on better conference record. Definitely something to keep in mind.

Clippers (37-39, 0 GB): at New Orleans/Oklahoma City (36-41), at Lakers (39-34), vs. Portland (31-46), vs. Sacramento (31-45), at Phoenix (58-19), vs. New Orleans/Oklahoma City (36-41)

One game at a time for the Clips. With six games in nine days (seven in ten if you count last night), the Clippers will be tested, including three games against fellow contenders. They are playing together as well as they have at any point this season, with Corey and Cat Mobley doing a great job creating scoring for others as well as themselves. Jason Hart is playing far better than could have been expected. Can they continue to get balanced contributions on the offensive end? Does EB have it in him to carry the team like he did down the stretch last year? With Thomas’ injury (though he’s going to try to play), do they have enough frontcourt depth to defend the paint and rebound effectively? The answers start coming tonight against the Hornets.

New Orleans/Oklahoma City (36-41, 1.5 GB): vs. LA Clippers (37-39), vs. Denver (41-36), at Houston (49-29), at Sacramento (31-45), at LA Clippers (37-39)

The Hornets seemed dead a week ago, but winning four out of five has propelled them back to the fringes of the race. Because they get two more games with the Clippers, they still are very much alive if they win out and can get some help from whomever’s playing Golden St. The fact that they are still alive despite having significant injuries to their entire rotation is a testament to their toughness. Still, with Des Mason now out for the season alongside Peja Stojakovic, and Tyson Chandler pretty iffy with a bruised toe, Chris Paul will have to be a monster for them to pull off this stretch. The Clips can finish them off tonight.

AP photo by Donna McWilliam

A Place to Call Home

2007-04-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 8)

The Clippers finally broke ground on their long overdue practice facility on Thursday afternoon, a 42,500 square foot facility at Playa Vista. The facility is scheduled to be completed early next year, outfitted with the same quality of equipment as you’d find at Sports Club LA (minus all of the beautiful, surgically enhanced clientele).

With $25 million invested into the project, now Elton Brand, Cat Mobley, et al will finally have a legitimate place to work out and train in the offseason and on off-days, building up endurance for sustained playoff runs in the years ahead.

So now when Elgin Baylor and Mike Dunleavy try to sell free agents on joining the team, they won’t have to hang their head in shame when asked why the Lakers are the only team in town with actual top-notch digs. While the Lakers spend their down time at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, the Clips have been practicing down the street at a Spectrum Health Club along with Bubba, the physical trainer.

Although the Clippers are eight years behind the Lakers in terms of getting facilities, and light years behind in accomplishments, each step they make these days symbolizes a bold move towards closing the gap and gaining permanent respectability as a franchise. With Donald Sterling committed to spending a few of his shillings to at least be on par with other teams in terms of personnel, the Clips are primed to pass along NBA laughingstock status to the Warriors once and for all. They just have to make sure to finish ahead of them this season.

John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae @ UCI, 4/3

2007-04-05T00:35:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 5)

John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae kicked off their 33-date US tour at UCI’s Bren Events Center on Tuesday night, reuniting two of the young stars who (along with ~~Mr. Jessica Simpson~~ John Mayer) delivered a ~~poignant~~ sleepy set at February’s Grammy Awards. In contrast to that milquetoast performance, Legend and CBR gave a lively three-hour show which even got the normally subdued Orange County crowd on its feet.

In this current era of pop music, where manufactured electronic beats coupled with absurdly simple lyrics (e.g. “I’m hot cuz I’m fly, you ain’t cuz you not,” or anything by Fergie) dominate the charts, it’s becoming increasingly rare to find artists that successfully cross over into the mainstream while maintaining a shred of originality, creativity, and versatility. Thus, it was refreshing to see John and Corinne exhibit all of these things while rockin’ the stage.

The British CBR, who was nominated for three Grammys in 2007 including Best New Artist, is best known for the breezy, sugary sweet “Put Your Records On” and the vulnerable “Like a Star” off her eponymous album. While both of those tracks possess a nice non-threatening pop sound, they belie the actual force of her voice and the rock and jazz-infused soul which underlies more of her music. Indeed, one of the most impactful songs was a take on Led Zeppelin’s piercing ballad, “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, which alternated between bass-syncopated rhythms and a heavy electric guitar riffs behind Corinne’s emotional vocals.

At the same time, CBR showed off her playful personality with her easy delivery of the funky “I’d Like To”. Although some of my female companions were preoccupied with her nice legs, I was drawn into her upper register runs on the passionate “Breathless”. But the unique quality of her voice was really highlighted when the band fell to the background on the slower songs like “Till It Happens to You”, allowing Corinne’s slightly melancholy tone to resonate throughout the arena, giving off a near haunting vibe.

Like Corinne, five-time Grammy award winner John Legend is perhaps better known for his soft piano-heavy ballads like “Ordinary People” but has been a force in the R&B/hip-hop scene for several years, collaborating with artists such as Kanye West, Common, and Fort Minor. Thus, it wasn’t entirely surprising to see Legend in full showmanship mode. Nevertheless, it was interesting to contrast his trademark grand piano at center stage with his constant prancing and preening around the stage.

Legend seemed determined to leave a memorable performance, perhaps to live up to his namesake (his actual last name is Stephens). He was backed by a full band, including horn section, which dialed up the beat and energy level for some of his more sweet tracks like “P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care)” and “Number One”. Legend even wandered into the crowd for a performance of the Sly & the Family Stone classic “Dance to the Music”. He got his sexy on as well, grinding up on a girl from the first row while ripping through “Slow Dance”.

That isn’t to say that Legend totally ignored his tender side. While not possessing the purest vocal, Legend’s smoky tenor provided a rich contrast in sound to the simple elegance of his piano playing when he slowed it down for a heartfelt rendition of “Coming Home” or the sweet “Where Did My Baby Go”. It is precisely this ability to lace a beautiful melody with a sensitive lyric that separates Legend from many of his peers in the genre, who are heavily reliant on oversexed, machismo-laden dance hall tracks. Legend does dabble into these types of songs, but really makes his mark when he displays his vulnerability.

Legend actually performed all but about five tracks from his 2004 Get Lifted album and the 2006 Once Again album. He even threw in the Latin-influenced “Please Baby Don’t” which he recorded on Sergio Mendes’ Timeless album. However, it was a surprise duet with CBR that elicited the biggest cheer from the crowd, a fun version of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s “Where is The Love?” Two great performers with great voices having a great time on stage together.

John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae will be performing at Gibson Amphitheatre on Friday at 8 pm.

One Side of the Coin: Clippers Coming Up Lakers' Tail

2007-04-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 5)

While panic is setting in for the purple and gold, confidence is rising for the red, white, and blue. In a playoff atmosphere at Staples, the Clippers withstood a huge second-half surge by the Lakers and hung on for a 90-82 win.

With the Clippers notching their first victory over the Lakers this season, and seventh out of eight overall, the two LA teams finally seem to reverting back to preseason expectations as the regular season winds down, as the Lakers stumble to the finish line with four losses out of five. The Clippers are now just a game-and-a-half behind their co-tenants and back at .500 for the first time in two months.

For the Clips, last night’s game was nearly a damaging replay of last Wednesday’s loss to the Rockets. They outworked, outhustled, and outplayed the Lakers in all aspects while sprinting out to a 15-point halftime lead. Corey Maggette, Cuttino Mobley, and Jason Hart were nearly flawless from the perimeter, and Kobe was having to work extremely hard to get his points.

But when the third quarter rolled around, the Lakers began to clamp down, and the Clippers relapsed into their tendency to isolate one side of the court and play one-on-one ball. Meanwhile, the Lakers were able to create offense in transition off of turnovers and crept all the way back to within one point with five minutes to play.

It was an unlikely hero that came to the rescue: Chris Kaman. He with the big bald spot. As bad as Kaman has been most of the year, he must be given his props when he earns his check. He turned in his best effort in weeks with 17 points, 14 boards, and 4 blocks. He repeatedly schooled young Andrew Bynum in the post and was active on the offensive glass, taking advantage of the Lakers’ smallish and thin frontline. Kaman was reinserted right after the Lakers had gotten to their closest point in the fourth, and stopped the Lakers’ momentum with a left-handed baby hook and drawing a foul on Bynum for free throws on consecutive possessions.

As has been the case during the team’s hot streak, the Clips played as a unit on both ends and got important contributions from many sources. Five players scored in double figures, with six getting between nine and seventeen shots. Contrast this with the Lakers, who watched Kobe jack up 34 shots, and were too often standing around waiting for him to make a play.

Of course, it was the waves of defenders that Mike Dunleavy threw at Kobe that harassed him into his poor shooting, in particular Mobley and Q. Ross, and the mostly solid defensive rotation that prevented the Lakers’ role players from getting many open jumpers out of those double teams. Despite the Clippers’ dismal 33-point second half, they showed the ability to make the critical plays when they were most needed.

With the Lakers’ once seemingly unbreakable stranglehold on the six seed slipping quickly, expect next Thursday’s matchup between LA’s finest to be even more intense with potentially more at stake. The way things are trending, it could be the Clippers’ chance to bury the Lakers next time around.

AP photo by Mark J. Terrill

The CW (Clipper Weekly): Together Everyone Achieves More

2007-04-03T00:30:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on April 3)

Current Record: 36-37, 3rd Pacific, 8th West

Last Week:

It’s amazing how sometimes a little adversity can galvanize a group of people and inspire them to achieve more than was thought possible. OK, so in the Clippers’ case, they’re basically achieving what was expected at the beginning of the season. Nevertheless, after utterly disappointing play for most of the season, the Clips seem to have finally found their groove just in the nick of time, playing their best three-week stretch of ball despite the absence of their leader of today (Sam Cassell) and leader of tomorrow (Shaun Livingston).

While the Clippers were unable to close out a nailbiter against a tough Houston squad, the team responded with back-to-back road wins, including breaking a Washington Generals-like ten year losing streak in Sacramento (17 games), and a laugher against Portland. The Clips have maintained a high level of execution, particularly on offense, which means a lot of people are getting touches. And surprise, surprise, when people are getting the ball and the team is winning six out of seven, the clubhouse mood gets a little bit lighter. Corey Maggette is happier with his increased role. Jason Hart has gone from in-over-his-head to team catalyst. Chris Kaman… well, he’s still playing like a stiff, so not everything has changed for the better.

Quick Take:

Yes, that is a feeling of anticipation that is arising from Clipper Nation once again. Despite the fact that most fans expected the team to be closer to title contention than the lottery, this is still the same franchise that has four playoff appearances in its 23 years in LA and has never had two consecutive winning seasons. Just getting to be a part of the dance means something to the Clips. It may not seem like a big deal to the Showtime crowd, but to even be validated as an above-average team (and not just a one-year wonder) is significant. It represents a hope that Clipper fans can dream bigger.

Last year’s success was predicated on a team concept, working together on defense and spreading the wealth on offense. It was this togetherness that resonated with fans – that and the whole winning thing. For most of the year, the Clippers have been a collection of individuals rather than a team. Big difference. Painful to watch. But the team is beginning to resemble last year more, with five or even six players routinely scoring in double figures and active on both ends of the court.

If there is any bad news, it’s that the injury bug continues to claim additional victims. Maggette missed Saturday’s win after taking an elbow to the chest, and is questionable for the big crosstown showdown against the ~~Kobes~~ Lakers on Wednesday. Cassell is showing no signs of returning from his back injury. No, Kaman isn’t injured. Seriously. He’s just bad.

Playoff Push:

#6 Lakers (39-34): vs. Denver (36-36), at Clippers (36-37), at Seattle (30-43)
#7 Denver (36-36): at Lakers (39-34), vs. Sacramento (30-42), vs. Dallas (61-12), at Clippers (36-37)
#8 Clippers (36-37): vs. Lakers (39-34), vs. Denver (36-36)
Golden St (35-39): at Houston (47-27), at Memphis (19-56), at San Antonio (52-21)

Decide it on the court. That’s the rub for the Lakers, Nuggets, and Clippers, who have a little round robin action this week with the opportunity to determine their own playoff destiny. Granted, the race for #6 isn’t exactly the most meaningful, especially when considering the negligible difference of getting a first-round facial by the Spurs (#3), Suns (#2), or Mavs (#1), by far the three best teams in the Association. What’s more important for each of these teams is to finish on a good note, given all of the turmoil that all three have faced this year, to build some forward momentum for next season.

The Lakers can all but wrap the #6 seed with a couple of wins, while the Nuggets and Clippers can give themselves some more buffer from the Warriors. With Golden St. playing two extremely tough road games, a strong week by either Denver or LAC could virtually clinch a playoff spot.

This Week:

Wednesday: vs. Lakers (FSW2/FSN, 7:30 pm) – the Lakers have won both games in the series, but it’s been four months since the two teams met, and much has changed in that time. What’s not different is the fact that the Clips have to find an answer for #24, who’s averaged 34.5 in the two meetings. Q. Ross, who’s been primarily collecting splinters on the bench, will probably have the first crack, especially with Maggette ailing. However, with the Lakers apparently allergic to playing anything resembling defense (nearly allowing 108 points per game over the last 15), EB should be licking his chops at getting to face their highly inconsistent front line. More on this game later in the week.

Saturday: vs. Denver (KTLA-CW, 7:30 pm) – the Nuggets continue to putter along, waiting for the burst that the Iverson trade was supposed to bring which hasn’t materialized. On paper, it feels like Denver should be better, with the NBA’s top scoring duo of Melo and AI ringing up 56 points a game, plus two tough bigs in Nene and Marcus Camby. But the two superstars haven’t really figured out how to elevate each other’s game on offense, while both are suspect on defense. The Clips need to make it a halfcourt game since Denver’s offense is much weaker in the set offense (read: isolation plays for the two stars) than in transition.

AP photo by Rick Bowmer

More Mindless Chatter About the Game (aka Where Can I Get a Pair of Gator Boots?)

2007-03-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on March 30)

So here we are again. Familiar faces all around. 40 minutes. How will you be remembered? Making history or rewriting history?

Henry has already laid out the LAist position for tomorrow's national semifinal matchup between Florida and UCLA. Of course, most of the sports world believes the Gators will outclass the Bruins. Vegas has Florida listed as 3 point favorites. Virtually every writer from every major sports publication (ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sportsline) is picking the Gators to advance. Not since the Persians took on the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae has a matchup appeared so one-sided on paper.

Yes, Florida has the same lineup which spanked UCLA last year, and they're in pursuit of college basketball immortality. But the Bruins have busted their asses for a whole year for this one opportunity to make things right. Payback is a bitch.

In the LAist tradition of highlighting the shortcomings of our counterparts in the Southeast, here’s a few reasons why UCLA is better than Florida, and why there will be a new ending to the story when the final buzzer goes off tomorrow night:

- Honestly, when your best player dances like a baboon undergoing electroshock therapy, there’s no way your team can possibly be taken seriously - YouTube

- Arron Afflalo, first-team All-American. Most clutch performer on the court. Last time the Bruins had a first-team All-American? Ed O’Bannon, 1995. How did the Bruins do that year? National champs - Long Beach Press Telegram

- The face of Gator Nation: Billy Donovan. Or is that the face of Wildcat Nation? Coach Donovan may have a few other things on his mind besides the Bruins - Florida Today

- The last time the finalists from the previous year met in the Final Four? 1991. Heavy underdog Duke taking on seemingly invincible UNLV who had won the previous year by 30. The result? Slightly different than the first time around - ESPN

- Dissing the greatest college basketball coach of all-time? Just adding more fuel to the fire. Who the hell is Walter Hodge? - LA Times

- Just because Marisa Miller said so. 'Nuff said - Sports Illustrated

AP photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez

Rocketing Towards a First-Round Exit

2007-03-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on March 29)

Last night’s nationally televised game between the Clippers and the Rockets (a five-point win for Houston) demonstrated the kind of progress that the Clips have made over the last month, and why the team will hold on to the eighth spot with their eleven remaining games. It also illustrated the reasons why the Clips have fallen far short of the lofty expectations set forth for them this year.

Both teams displayed a level of execution typically seen in the postseason, with only 20 combined turnovers, and the teams traded blows like a heavyweight fight. The Clippers team during the middle 40 games of the year could not have held their ground in this kind of game. However, when it truly mattered, it was the Rockets that stepped up and made the plays in crunch time while the Clippers stumbled. Houston was also aided by a TERRIBLE call by Steve Javie, who only awarded Cuttino Mobley two shots when he was clearly hacked in the act of shooting a game-tying three-pointer with two seconds left.

The Clippers can be a very good team, and proved that they can play with an elite-level team like the Rockets, a darkhorse title contender. But they still haven’t found a way to cross the fine line that separates very good from mediocre.

Last night it was two possessions that decided the game. With the Clips nursing a two-point lead in the final minute, T-Mac penetrated and drew a double team, then found Shane Battier for a wide-open three. On the other end? The Clips ran a half-hearted pick-and-roll, dribbling around the perimeter for 15 seconds, then had Tim Thomas shoot a contested three, which he bricked. One defensive stop, Clippers win. One well-executed play, Clippers win. Two bad sequences equal a Clipper loss.

The Clips, even with their depleted roster, have the moxie and talent to stay ahead of the inferior teams chasing them, as seen in the tremendous offensive basketball that they played during the first half; they built a seven-point lead while picking apart the league’s top-rated field goal percentage defense with a combination of crisp ball movement out of double teams, dribble penetration, and transition baskets off of defensive rebounds. But they simply don’t have the consistency to win a seven-game series against any top contender, as seen in last night’s ugly third quarter, in which they reverted to their isolation, jump-shooting bad habits and were outscored by 16.

There was some good news, though: their main rivals continue to look like playoff posers. Denver lost at home to lowly Seattle, while NO/OKC and Minnesota both lost tight road games to San Antonio and Utah. LA stands 1.5 games up in the standings for the last playoff spot, and still 1.5 behind Denver for the seven spot.

AP photo by Kevork Djansezian

The CW (Clipper Weekly): Home Stretch

2007-03-26T17:02:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on March 26)

Current Record: 34-36, 3rd Pacific, 8th West

Last Week: While the LA hoops world has been focused on the Bruins’ repeat run to the Final Four and Kobe’s insane scoring binge, the Clippers have quietly found their groove at the best possible time. Over the last two weeks since the last CW, the Clips finished their pivotal road-trip 3-3, which may not seem terribly remarkable, but considering the team’s road woes throughout the season, it was a major step forward. After seemingly going through the motions over the course of the last six weeks, it was as if someone finally flipped the switch to get the Clippers to start playing harder and as a team. The high point was a surprising win against the Bulls, who came in with the best home record in the Eastern Conference, but were pushed around by the Clippers in their own gym during the fourth quarter.

Upon arriving back in LA, the Clippers promptly took out two likely playoff teams on back-to-back nights. They routed the Northwest Division leading Jazz, holding them to a season-low 72 points in a 32-point win, then knocked off the Southeast Division leading Wizards to increase the team’s winning streak to four games heading into the final three weeks. The best part? Most of the work was done without the services of Sam Cassell, who only played in three of these last eight games because of his recurring back spasms. Despite not having their venerable leader on the court, the Clippers came out and showed the heart which has been missing most of the year, executing their game plan on both ends of the court for a change.

Quick Take: Interestingly enough, it was a loss to San Antonio, the first game of that road trip, which seemed to give the team confidence. The Spurs had absolutely demolished the Clips in the teams’ first three meetings by an average of 21.7 points and were coming in on a 12-game winning streak, yet the Clippers played them tough for four quarters. The CW has pointed out how often the Clips have gotten punked by elite teams, but this two-week stretch reversed that trend for the first time this year.

So where has this resurgence come from? Not surprisingly, it’s been a function of all of the components of the team elevating their game at the same time. Unlike the Lakers, where Kobe has been able to singlehandedly take over games during their winning streak, the Clips have needed each different people to step up to facilitate their success. Corey Maggette has been extremely efficient, scoring over 19 points a game during March, but shooting 54% from the field and dishing out 4.3 dimes, well above his career totals. Cuttino Mobley has been dialing long distance, averaging over 18 points a game in the last six, but more importantly shooting 56% from the arc to open up the inside game. And the tandem of Jason Hart and Daniel Ewing has done an admirable job of holding down the point guard position, staying within their own limits and not making too many mistakes – the duo averaged 5.8 assists as compared to only 2.3 turnovers.

The Clippers’ latest winning streak has helped them separate themselves from some of the pretenders in the West. They sit two games behind Denver and out of the 7 spot, and a game and a half up on Golden St. and two on the Hornets for the 8 spot. For the rest of the regular season, LAist will be checking in more frequently to keep you up-to-date on the Clippers’ push for the postseason.

This Week:

Wednesday: vs. Houston (PRIME, 7:00 pm) – the Clippers have played the Rockets very tough this season, going 1-2 with two narrow losses, including a four-point defeat on the last road trip. The Clips actually led with a minute to play in that game in Houston after being down by 17, only to watch Luther Head hit a backbreaking three. A heavy dose of Elton Brand and Chris Kaman kept the Rockets on their heels, and seemed to wear out Yao Ming by the end of the game. With Houston battling for homecourt advantage in the first-round of the playoffs with Utah, you can count on the fact that Jeff Van Gundy will have his team focused and ready to play its usual hard-nosed style.

Friday: at Sacramento (PRIME, 7:30 pm) – all is not well in cow country. The Kings are in disarray and are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1998, the year before the Maloof family purchased the team. Resident ~~nutjob~~ superstar Ron Artest is rumored to be contemplating retirement to spend more time with his family. Yes, this is the same guy who was arrested three weeks ago for domestic battery charges. Sacramento is still a dangerous team, as evidenced by yesterday’s win over Phoenix, with Artest, Kevin Martin, and Mike Bibby roaming around on the perimeter. The Clips found success with a big lineup last time the teams played, using Brand, Tim Thomas, and Kaman on the floor at the same time for stretches, and will likely need to pound the ball inside to take advantage of the Kings’ lack of frontcourt depth.

Saturday: at Portland (KTLA-CW, 7:00 pm) – with the Blazers on their way to their fourth consecutive season in the lottery, the team is determined to let its young players ~~get crushed to ensure a better draft position~~ gain experience. First-round draft pick LaMarcus Aldridge is getting a lot of run, showing glimpses of his potential with his scary ability to finish around the hoop, while rookie-of-the-year frontrunner Brandon Roy continues to impress, having scored at least sixteen points in all ten games this month. The Clips must beware of a letdown against a team that would love to help knock them out of the playoffs.

AP photo by Gus Ruelas

Hoop City USA

2007-03-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on March 21)

Tobacco Road, watch your back. Gainesville, better enjoy that trophy while you’ve got it. LA is back with a vengeance and is ready to reclaim its place atop the college basketball kingdom.

With UCLA and USC both advancing to the Sweet 16 for only the second time ever, the local buzz hasn’t been this great in decades. The Bruins have been a consistently good program since the departure of John Wooden from the sidelines (12 Sweet 16 appearances), but only occasionally great (1995 champion, Final Fours in 1976, 1980, and 2006), certainly a far cry from their magical run of ten national titles in twelve seasons. Meanwhile, the Trojans’ hoops squads have been mostly an afterthought, with momentary flashes of excellence (the Harold “Baby Jordan” Miner and Clancy/Scalabrine/Bluthenthal teams come to mind) amongst continued mediocrity (five NCAA tournament wins total over the last 45 years).

For perhaps the first time in the modern era, it appears that both schools are well-positioned for long-term success. Though both schools face tall tasks to continue to advance in this year’s tournament (UCLA facing off with its coach’s old program Pitt, USC drawing top-seed North Carolina), the pieces are in place for these deep postseason runs to become an annual occurrence. Both teams are led by terrific coaches – the Bruins’ Ben Howland and the Trojans’ Tim Floyd – who are proven program builders, and integrate order and discipline with top-notch strategy; witness USC’s dismantling of trendy pick Texas and likely player-of-the-year Kevin Durant. Both teams have tremendous athletes all over their respective rosters. And both teams are landing the highest-regarded prep recruits (Kevin Love for UCLA, OJ Mayo and his weed for USC) to replenish the talent pool. This is great news for LA hoop fans, bad news for the Pac 10 and the rest of the nation.

While the ardent supporters of both schools aren’t terribly excited to see the other succeed, a legitimate rivalry between the teams is perhaps the best things for both schools and for the city. Pure hatred can be entertaining to a point, and there are hundreds of rivalries across the country with equal amounts of venom as UCLA-USC. But hatred mixed with top-flight competition brings a far greater degree of relevance and recognition beyond the local scene. Michigan-Ohio St. football. North Carolina-Duke basketball. People pay attention not only because the emotions are so high, but also because the stakes are always high as well. The games actually matter on a national level. It brings these schools and these geographies to center stage. And there’s no place that should be more on center stage than LA.

Look at the gridiron. USC has been hogging the spotlight for its insane run of success over the last several years, but UCLA’s upset win this season finally brought the rivalry back into the limelight after seven years of Trojan domination. Are the Bruins back to the Trojans’ level? Of course not. But they’re at least back in the conversation again.

Similarly, the Trojan basketball squad is putting itself back on the map in a time when folks east of the Mississippi and the honks at ESPN typically only think blue and gold when it comes to noteworthy teams out West. Floyd & Co. still have plenty of work to do to catch up to UCLA’s national profile, but sustained success in the tournament can validate the quality of ball being played beyond the walls of Pauley Pavilion. Even schools like Long Beach, which had a terrific season but flew far under the radar even in SoCal, benefit from the spillover effect of exposure that comes when the two big LA teams are riding high.

So if you’re a fan of LA (or even if you’re Joe Bruin or Tommy Trojan), keep hope alive that the Bruins and Trojans will continue their run. Can you imagine the hoopla surrounding a UCLA-USC matchup in the finals? Sure it’s a longshot. But it’s becoming less of a pipe dream by the day.

#2 UCLA vs. #3 Pittsburgh
West Regional Semifinal
HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA
Thursday, 6:40 PM (CBS)

#5 USC vs. #1 North Carolina
East Regional Semifinal
Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ
Friday, 6:57 PM (CBS)

AP Photos by Marcio Jose Sanchez and Rick Bowmer

The CW (Clipper Weekly): March Madness

2007-03-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

(Originally posted on LAist on March 12)

Current Record: 29-33, 3rd Pacific, 8th West

Last Week: Let’s see, the Clippers lost all three games they played by an average of 14 points. But with the madness going on in the NBA this season, the Clippers continue to hold on to the last playoff spot in the West, despite their best efforts to mail it in. They even inched closer to the sixth spot by losing one less game than the Lakers last week. Such is life in this bizarro world where only 12 of the league’s 30 teams are above .500 and the “contenders” seem to be trying harder to lose and stay in the lottery for the 1% chance that they’ll win the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes, rather than trying to get into the playoffs. Teams six through twelve in the Western Conference standings (Lakers, Denver, Clippers, Sacramento, Golden St., New Orleans, Minnesota) went a combined 7-17 last week, with five of the wins coming against each other (in other words, someone had to win).

The newly-signed Jason Hart is getting nearly all of the point guard minutes with Sam Cassell barely able to play because of his injuries, and Daniel Ewing back to his more appropriate role on the pine. While Hart is doing an adequate job, the Clippers’ already pedestrian offense plays at an even slower pace because he’s not as proficient at getting out in transition. The Clips failed to take advantage of the absences of injured Spurs star Tony Parker and suspended Pistons hothead Rasheed Wallace. Whereas those elite teams found ways to compensate for key absences, LA is showing no such ability.

Quick Take: The team looks like it’s checked out at this point, despite being in the playoff race. Their body language exudes no confidence, their play offers no intensity. It’s not even like past Clippers teams where individual players would try to shine on their own in order to attract a lucrative free-agent contract somewhere else. Mike Dunleavy’s outburst and subsequent ejection during yesterday’s game didn’t really seem to make any impact at all, as the Pistons immediately increased their lead without much fight from the Clips.

The Clippers embark on a difficult six-game road trip (and we know how the road has treated the Clippers this season), which is shaping up as the pivotal moment of the season. It is very easy to see the Clippers going 1-5 or 0-6, which could bury them in the standings if a couple of their rivals start playing better. However, an upset win could provide the spark to snap the team out of its post-Livingston funk and help them gain some momentum for the final three-week push.

This Week:

Tuesday: at San Antonio (KTLA-CW, 5:00 pm) – uh oh, it’s those Spurs again, who still haven’t lost in over a month (winning streak at 12 games and counting). They’re flat out playing terrific ball, and it would be a shock if the Clippers even stayed within ten points of them. Unlike the Clips, the Spurs are actually utilizing their entire roster for quality minutes, enabling Gregg Popovich to regulate the minutes of Tim Duncan, et al., yet still run teams off the court. Of course, having Duncan, Parker, and Manu Ginobili enables Pops to do a lot of things most teams can’t.

Wednesday: at Houston (KTLA-CW, 5:30 pm) – one team that knows nothing about packing in after devastating injuries is the Rockets. Yes, they’ve had plenty of experience during the last three seasons dealing with Tracy McGrady’s back problems and Yao Ming’s brittle bones, but the fact that they continue to play well in spite of their one or both of their stars is admirable. Yao returned from his broken leg last week after a 32-game absence, giving Houston the best healthy inside-outside combination in the league. However, the supporting cast, in particular Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, and the ageless wonder Dikembe Mutombo, has done all of the dirty work necessary to give the Rockets the ability to win games through superior toughness in tight spots: they’re 11-6 in games decided by five points or less.

Friday: at Charlotte (PRIME, 4:00 pm) – the Bobcats have lost eight straight, coinciding with Emeka Okafor being sidelined with a calf injury. Okafor may be back by Friday, which will make it more difficult for Corey Maggette to get to the line 20 times as he did when the two teams met a couple of weeks ago. The Clips were getting owned in that game by Gerald Wallace, who got to the hoop at will against anybody Dunleavy threw at him. Wallace may still get his, but the Clippers must prevent one-dimensional scorers Matt Carroll and the wispy-mustached Adam Morrison from getting open looks to win this game.

Sunday: at New Jersey (KTLA-CW, 3:00 pm) – the Nets are also struggling, losers of five straight to fall out of the postseason picture (and even behind the, gulp, Knicks). The first game between the two teams was perhaps the most memorable game of the season, with the Clippers blowing an 18-point second half lead, but winning on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Cuttino Mobley. Richard Jefferson just returned from ankle surgery last week, giving New Jersey its three-headed perimeter monster, along with Jason Kidd and Vince Carter, but the Nets are so weak inside, Chris Kaman might actually put some points on the board.

AP photo by Gus Ruelas