SoCal
Angelini Osteria – Everyone is smiling here and you will leave smiling, too. Especially after a few glasses of the Vietti Barolo which has quite some legs to it. Everything is good so just eat, drink, and talk really loud with your mouth full. Oh and ask the Italian waiters to teach you some “sign language”.
Pollo a la Brasa – I used to live in K-town during gradschool and always passed by this Peruvian chicken rotisserie joint (smoking yellow shack on Western and 8th) in my purple hoopty to and fro school but for some reason never dropped in till this weekend. As I held a crispy skinned, glossy chicken quarter in one hand and a ball of rice in the other(I try to not to use utensils when ever possible to, you know, live greener) I thought of how great LA’s eclecticism is. Where in the world can you get served Peruvian chicken by a Japanese couple and look out the window to see pasty Koreans walking about with their umbrellas and Mexican families toting around black plastic bags bulging with the day’s buys.
NorCal
“I like the bubbling play of wit, the chesty laughs,the resonant voices of men, when, glass in hand, they shut the grey world outside and prod their brains with the fun and folly of an accelerated pulse. “- Jack London, Jack Barleycorn
Nation’s Giant Burgers – I was wandering around Jack London Square (not recommended if you are afraid of the dark, homeless folks, and frankly, black people) late one night trying to fight off the lonely business man blues with some comfort food. I came upon Nation’s, two doors down from the siren lights of the XXX adult store. Nation’s doesn’t mess around, they serve up big-ass burgers with slices of cheese as thick as a McDonald’s meat patty that will put you in a food coma mid-bite and a good sweet potato tart that reminded me of banh khoai mi. The service is slow late at night but sometimes thats a good thing.
Soizic Bistro – West Oakland is one of those areas where one block separates the designer planned lofts, promenades, and shopping plazas from urban grit. So I was surprised to this French fusion bistro underneath crumbling steely, blue stucco walls. I was drawn in by the shelves of amber liquor refracting beams of the setting sun and stayed for the duck confit salad and lamb filet mignon. Don’t know if this is a popular local spot but wouldn’t mind if it was my secret.
Soundtrack of Mi Vida: I Just Called to Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder (makes me think of those Karaoke laser discs that had footage of random 80′s big haired Europeans women frolicking on a beach for every song)