Middle of the night drunken cravings.

The hubster was craving beer last night. He hadn't had a drink in... 3 months? I'm not sure, something like that. And he loves his beer. After a night of hanging out with friends and drinking beer (for him, I was driving), he wanted tacos. Real tacos. At 1am.  

Where does one go for real tacos at 1am? Simple. 

El Gallo Giro. 

We went to the one on Bristol and Edinger in Santa Ana, caddy-corner (kitty corner?) to Mater Dei High School. They are open 24 hours. 

We have typically gone here not just to get tacos and tortas but we'll also pick up the meats and tortillas to make tacos at home. Not only do they have a big ol' meat counter but there's a drink counter (horchata, jimica, etc), and half of El Gallo Giro is actually a bakery.

Totally hit the spot.

Celebratory dinner

In honor of Corina becoming an associate at work, SHE treated us out to dinner (on the company) at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants: Honda-ya in Tustin.

We went all out. Got the 4-item yakatori plate of chicken leg meat, chicken...liver, um, something and something. In addition we picked up two items each of the bacon-wrapped asparagus and the bacon-wrapped tomatoes and the meatball yakatoris. Was that it? Oh yeah and between Corina and Olivia, an order of the crunchy roll. This was our appetizer.

For the entree, we each got a 2-item dinner combo, which includes a bowl of miso soup, a side salad, a bowl of rice, a side of (Japanese) potato salad and your two items. I got the Sesame-fried chicken with vegetable tempura. Corina got the tonkatsu with vegetable tempura and Olivia got the mixed (or was it vegetable as well?) tempura with teriyaki salmon.

At this point, we had finished off most of the yakitori. And yes, there were only three of us girls. Well, plus 2-year old Sid, but he didn't eat much. He spent most of the time on his iPhone.

Thank you, Corina! And congrats!!!

El Chulo - college student's best friend

I'm talking about El Chulo Restaurant, located in Los Angeles. Specifically, on Western Avenue near Olympic. And when I say "college student", I mean a USC college student (although I don't know if this applies to other nearby academic facilities). 

Once upon a time, I was a college student in the big city of Los Angeles living at the small brick campus of the University of Southern California (I say "small" because it occupied one city block, as opposed to other campuses that sprawl and sprawl and is the town). There were tons and tons of eateries all around campus of course, but one day, we discovered this wonderful happy place that took about 15 minutes to get to by car. A bit further than walking out onto Figueroa, but not far at all. 

What makes this place so heavenly? Why not? I think for me, it's the ambiance. It's quaint and feels like you're dining at someone's hacienda (okay maybe not a whole hacienda, but how about a nice I've-got-history welcoming home). You really do feel like you're dining in a cozy parlor or a charming Spanish courtyard. Waiting doesn't feel that long (when there is a wait time) as the "living room" is right next to the bar. 

The margaritas here are supposedly really good. I say supposedly because I haven't had one in a long time (DD) but if I recall, the last time I had one here, two of us had to be helped across the street to the car, at which point I was speaking in Spanish... which I don't know.

Anyhow, I think the food is pretty good. I would say 75% of the time I order the chimichangas. I love those here. But this past weekend, I decided to go wild! I ordered the Chile Colorado (10.75).

I don't think I've ever had Chile Colorado before, so I really had nothing to compare it to. The meat was tender and the sauce was not too salty - I liked it. Combined with Spanish rice, some beans with cheese, fresh guacamole (in a tiny tortilla shell) and a side of tortillas, it was very filling. This phone photo might not look it, but it was quite tasty.

Anna opted for the tried and true Combo #1 (an El Chulo favorite!) consisting of a cheese enchilada and a beef taco and accompanied by rice, beans and some veggies (10.75). The plate looks humongous, no? That's because it is. And the taco? FRIED! I will have to try that next :)

So back to college. The entree portions were so filling, one rarely ever finished everything. So most of the time, one of my roommates and I would end up splitting a plate. So a 10.75 plate became 5.38 for each of us. But wait - there's more! Because they knew we were starving students and broke from attempting higher education, Mondays thru Thursdays, if you showed your student ID (I know specifically it worked with a valid USC student ID), your entree would be 50% off. Yes, really. So, that 10.75 plate I split with a friend to be 5.38 per person? Yes, it would then become 2.69 per person. For a yummy just-the-right-amount-of-full Mexican dinner. With the complimentary unlimited chips and salsa for the table and the little pecan sugar cluster things they give you at the end, you can't go wrong. You can't go wrong.

Too bad the Irvine one doesn't give me the same feeling.

And now I'm hungry again.

Hash House a Go-Go!

What would you have as a follow-up to the Wynn buffet while in Vegas? Well, since we didn't get hungry until 20 hours later, why not Hash House A G0-Go, located inside Imperial Palace, as featured on Man v Food???

Yes, why not?

It was delicious.

I think their idea is to provide farm-fresh food... but on steroids. The wait was about half an hour to get seated, and maybe another half an hour after that until we got our food, but it was worth it. Anna's order came out first.

Perhaps their most popular: the Sage Chicken and Waffles (14.95).

Four fresh waffles with hardwood smoked bacon, topped with two sage-fried chicken breasts and with a hot maple "reduction" and fried leeks. It needed a skewer to stand up!

When I said "waffles with hardwood smoked bacon", I mean, the bacon is cooked INSIDE the waffle. Do you see that? The bacon sticking out of the corner of the waffle? Genius!

And then my order came out: one of their One-Pound Burgers. There are a variety of their burgers, but I went with the Apple Smoked Bacon and Mashed Potatoes one (12.95).

Doesn't that look super yummy?! That is a thick sprig of rosemary and a giant steak knife stuck in the middle of the burger to hold it together. And the contents, from bottom to top:

Bottom bun - leaf of lettuce, slices of red onion, slices of tomato, slices of pickles, a juicy beef patty, a layer of tasty mashed potatoes, several slices of thick crispy bacon, another layer of juicy beef patty, and the bun top. As if that entire combination wasn't jaw-dropping enough, I had a piece of the top bun by itself. It tasted like a doughnut. No joke!

We finished almost half of our meal for lunch. We attempted to finish the remainder for dinner. That means we officially had 2 meals the entire weekend. I [heart] Vegas - see you again real soon!

A Buffet to end all buffets

Buffets are great - you don't have to be committed to just one item (and maybe an accompanying side) on a menu, you can have a bite of EVERYTHING! If you want to anyway.

Back in the day, having a buffet meant going out to the local Sizzler's. Now, I'm not knocking on good ol' Sizzler, but honestly, I can't remember going there within the past decade or two. And then Hometown Buffet came on board. And soon thereafter a plethora of Chinese buffets (my favorite of these is still Gold Coast in Monterey Park) popped up on the radar. And for the sake of the buffet I will be discussing below, I won't even mention Souplantation or Soup Exchange - it would just be an insult to call those "buffets". So without further delay, I would have to say the one who takes the cake, the icing, the first, second AND third prize of ultimate buffets... is the buffet at the Wynn hotel and casino in Vegas. *DROOL*!

It's pricey of course. For a weekend brunch, it is about $35/person. If you want, you can add an additional $7 and make it a champagne brunch (you get champagne). But Wynn really knows how to make it worth your while. Last weekend while we were there (indulging in a Friday-after-work-to-Monday-straight-into-work weekend getaway), lunch lasted 2-1/2 hours. It involved a lot of up and down the food counter, round and round the dessert bar and savoring foods with our eyes closed.

Okay so Anna probably didn't close her eyes, but I don't know if I'd put it past myself to do so.

Anyway. Trying not to be too touristy, every so often I'd take a shot of some of the displays (I couldn't take them all otherwise I'd never get around to eating!). 

Some Asian-inspired brunch dishes of a Congee bar and Dim Sum baskets...

For you fresh seafood lovers, some shrimp cocktail (and a bunch of others that I completely bypassed) and sushi and rolls...

For you "traditional breakfast" lovers, an array of pancakes, waffles and french toast (complete with numbers of fruit and other sweet toppings to your enjoyment) and the "healthier" selections of granola and yogurt parfaits and grapefruit slices...

For you egg lovers, an omelette station, and my personal favorite - eggs benedict (there were also some frittatas and whatever else you can imagine)...

For meatlovers, there is hand-carved prime rib, barbeque pork ribs, some pulled pork sliders, and Good Lord, slabs of blackened bacon hand-carved at your request...

For Italian food lovers, a variety of pizzas and other Italian-esque dishes, as well as quiche (I know, that's actually French), but adjacent to this was a variety of pasta dishes as well...

Located between the prepared seafood dishes (smoked salmon, crab cakes, other things I don't care for) and the soups and salads bar was the very mouth-watering cheese and cold-cuts counter...

I failed to take photos of so many other yummy dishes, but I was too eager to grab a plate and start piling them on! After two rounds, we noticed they had switched out the brunch menu and replaced a large number of dishes with their dinner menu. What new things did they bring out? Tons. And tons.

Some chicken dishes, A LOT of lamb dishes (lamb chops, lamb stew, racks and racks of lamb...), roasted turkeys... 

But the dish that I'm pretty sure 99% of the occupants were waiting for were the crab legs (with the melted butter urn sitting adjacent to the pile). There was a line of people walking away with heaps of these legs piled on 1, 2 plates at a time. I fall into the 1%.

I could not go for a third round to try some of the dinner menu. But I did force myself to grab one more plate (it IS Vegas, after all)... Let's talk dessert now, shall we? Where does one begin?

Some mini chocolate things? Some raspberry parfaits? Candied apples? The gelato bar?

Mini mint chocolate things? Some sort of caramel and pudding? Muffins, madeleines, oh my!

Pistachio and apricot dessert? Cookies cookies and more cookies? A crepe station?!

Strawberry shortcakes? Floating islands? Cream puffs?

In the end, I settled on the strawberry shortcake, a cream puff, a creme brulee, and a Tropical parfait (filled with raspberry and mango). The black dot on the side was Anna's shot of tiramisu.

Needless to say, our next meal didn't take place for another 20 hours.