Urth Caffe - Downtown Los Angeles

I don't visit coffee places very often, but when I do, I enjoy the quaint little ones. Starbucks is so overrated! Over the weekend, I visited Urth Cafe, located in Downtown Los Angeles, CA and met up with a few members from the Pleasure Palate meetup group. When the event host mentioned Hello Kitty latte and other characters that were drawn on the foam of the lattes, I was pretty much sold and I was so excited see that part! It has an indoor sitting area as well as a large outdoor patio area. It gets pretty busy here on the weekends, so both indoor and outdoor areas get full. Boba teas and hot teas do get served here, so if you're not a coffee drinker, it's ok. They will also make characters by requests on the foam on your tea lattes as well! This is certainly a great place to hang out with your friends. The only thing that I don't like about this place is that while the music that they play is nice, it's also a bit too loud. There is already enough talking amongst the customers and at the counter all of which are loud enough already, so when you're sitting inside and talking with your friends, it's hard to hear them if you're not shouting over the music.

 I ordered a Cafe Mocha

Santa Anita Park Food Truck Festival - January 2011

I attended the Santa Anita Park Food Truck Festival in Arcadia, CA last weekend. Santa Anita Park was normally known for its horse racing, so the guests in attendance of the food truck festival got a chance to watch and make bets on the horse racing.

The participating food trucks were:
* The Grilled Cheese Truck
* Don Chow Tacos
* Border Grill
* Canter's Truck
* Chunk'n Chip
* Baby's Bad*ss Burgers
* South Philly Experience
* Dosa
* Yatta Truck
* The Sweets Truck
* Dante Fried Chicken
* Dogtown Dogs
* Barbies Q
* No Reservations
* Knockout Tacos
* Chef Brian's Comfort Truck
* Ragin' Cajun
* Crepe'n Around
* Lobsta Truck
* Fresh Fries LA
* Lardon Truck
* Tapa Boy LA
* NaanStop
* Coolhaus
* Lake St. Creamery

While the concept of gathering several food trucks together in one place was great, it was amazing how many people were there. Perhaps the event was over-advertised because the lines to order food at most trucks were outrageously long (2+ hours) and the wait (45 minutes) to pick up the food after ordering was also ridiculous.
 Chocolate Brownie from Sweets Truck

 Kiwi Cupcake Shooter from Sweets Truck

 Slumdog from Dosa Truck
The best way to describe Dosa is like a French Crepe meets a Mexican Quesadilla meets Indian ingredients. The Dosa (dough) is fluffy and w/holy. The first bite is enlightening with a great balance of tangy Paneer (cheese), acidic Tomato, mushy Yellow Curry Potato, and green "Indian" Pesto. It's got just the right amount of grease to warm your insides, and enough crispy edges to keep your figure in check. There were other dosas on the menu, but I decided to try a slumdog (a dosa with potatoes and spiniach) which sounded, looked and tasted very good, light, fluffy and not greasy.


 Two "Big" Scoops from Coolhaus; one chocolate and one Thai Iced Tea. Coolhaus ran out of cookies before I ordered my ice cream.