Los Balcones del Peru - Hollywood

Belkin has an office in Hollywood where our engineers and designers are located.  This may sound glamorous to someone who doesn't know anything about LA, but those of us who've lived here know that much of Hollywood is pretty decrepit.  Belkin's Hollywood office is in one of the unglamorous parts of Hollywood.  It's neighbors are a gas station, a Yoshinoya, and an army surplus store which is actually pretty cool.  I had to go up there for a meeting, so I consulted my map to see what restaurants I could try in the area for lunch.  I was excited to see that Los Balcones Del Peru is only like a mile away from my destination, so I headed there after my meeting to check it out.  My map had lots of notes on this place, so I figured there must've been a lot of good comments about it on the blogs and message boards.  I went into the place with high hopes.

My meeting went pretty long, so I didn't end up getting to the restaurant until after 2:30pm.  At 2:30pm, there's no one at Balcones Del Peru.  I walked in and asked the you

ng woman sitting behind the bar reading a newspaper if they were open.  Yes, they were.  She told me to have a seat wherever I wanted so I did.  It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to try since there were so many things that sounded great.  I finally decided on the ceviche de mariscos (seafood ceviche) and pescado a la chorillana (Fillet of Fish seared with olive oil and topped with sauteed onions, tomatoes and bell peppers in aji amarillo sauce). 

The ceviche came out first and was generously topped with onions and a spicy-looking seasoning on top.  It was also accompanied by a piece of potato, what I'm guessing is a piece of yam and some giant corn kernals.  T

hat mealy kind of corn.  I don't know what it's called officially, but you can get something similar in Asia grilled and on-the-cob.  I dug in and soon found that the spicy-looking seasoning on the top of the ceviche was indeed very spicy.  I started to sweat.  The potato, yam, and big corn were really great ways to offset the strong, STRONG flavor of the ceviche.  Unfortunately, the actual ceviche was so tart that I could barely taste anything else.  I mean, I seriously felt like I was drinking a cup of lime juice mixed with lemon juice mixed with pure citric acid.  I couldn't taste the squid.  I couldn't taste the fish.  All I tasted was sour.  Not too enjoyable, but I continued to sweat and eat in some sort of vain hope that the next bite might be different.

Next up, pescado a la chorrillana.  Now I don't know aji amarillo sauce is, but it sounded pretty exotic so I figured I should try something new.  The dish looked pretty great when the waitress brought it, so I was encouraged.  This could have been a really great dish is they had cut the salt by about half.  The fish had a very nice kind of egg batter and was cooked well.  It was just too salty.  Way too salty.  I'm pretty sure even Peruvian food is not supposed to be this salty.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, my trip to Los Balcones del Peru was disappointing.  Maybe the one cook left at the place at 2:30pm isn't the one you want making your food.  Maybe the food is much better at other times.  I probably won't go back to see.  I will say that the hostess/waitress had a great smile and was very nice though.

Arby's

What is it about Arby's that makes it so polarizing?? People seem to either love the place or hate it. I happen to be one of the people who love Arby's. I wish that there were more of them near where I live in West LA. For me, the combination of Arby's sauce, Horsey sauce, seasoned roast beef, cheddar (movie theater nacho) cheese and a thick, sweet-ish bun just go perfectly together. First of all, I love horseradish sauces with roast beef and it's very rare to get it. For me, it's just like Thanksgiving dinner. I love traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans.. Just thinking of it makes my stomach start growling. So anytime I have the opportunity to eat turkey and dressing out of season, I pretty much have to have it. Turkey and cranberry sandwiches will work also. In the same way, when I see an Arby's, it's time for roast beef and horsey sauce. Just don't show me the nutrition chart for the Arby's menu. I can't begin to imagine the chemicals in the Arby's roast beef and that "cheese".

Musha - Torrance

I was very much looking forward to trying out Musha after reading so many raves about it on Chowhound and LA foodie blogs. I went to the Torrance location which is pretty hard to find. It takes up one quarter of a building in a very typical looking shopping center. The rest of the building is taken up by a large Korean BBQ place. There's a single green sign that says "Musha" on the side of the building, but the entrance could just as well be the entrance to the BBQ place, so I was a bit confused at first.

Upon entering the restaurant, I was first struck by how different the place looked than I had imagined. For some reason I was picturing a modern, upscale type of place like Katana. Instead, Musha has a very traditional Japanese feel to it. Even the menus are handwritten with Asian calligraphy highlighting each dish in Japanese. I felt like I was really in Japan. It helped that there was a large table of rowdy young Japanese diners who were thoroughly enjoying themselves and talking about all manner of apparently hilarious topics in Japanese.

After checking out the menu and ordering a kettle of green tea which was warm at best. The waiter squatted down by our table and immediately reported that they were out of 3 dishes already: the signature takotama (some kind of seafood omelette), the buta kakumi (braised pork belly), and one other dish which escapes me right now. Right away I knew that these must be the best dishes the place has to offer. Nuts. We ended up ordering the Musha Fried Chicken (MFC), tongue shichirin (thin slices that you cook yourself atop a grill of glowing charcoals), aburi shimesaba (marinated mackerel torched at the table) and baguette dish (baguette stuffed with cheeses, scallops and shrimp I think).

Maybe my expectations had been pumped up too high, but I was pretty disappointed with these dishes. They were all good, but none of the dishes were spectacular or worth the $7-11 price per dish. The MFC was good, but without any real kick. You can get a more flavorful version of this at any number of places for half the price. The tongue dish was decent also, but consisted of 8 thinly sliced pieces about the size of pepperonis from a pizza. Having been to places like Mu Dong San and Manna where you can get plate after plate of Korean BBQ meats of all sorts for one low price, shichirin seems like a slap in the face. The taste had at least have some special character to it. The baguette dish (I don't remember the actual name of it) was an interesting combination of flavors and seemingly out of place for a Japanese restaurant. This one was worth a try, but I'm not sure I'd order it again. The mackeral was the best of the bunch. Both warm and cool at the same time and Slightly acidic, these thin slices of fish tasted great with a bite of pickled ginger. We were still hungry after finishing these four dishes, so we ordered a spicy fried rice to fill our stomachs. I'll admit that the fried rice was better than average, but not by much.

For dessert, it was chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream and sesame ice cream. While the rest of the meal was just so-so, the desserts were very good. To me, the sesame ice cream could have had a bit heavier sesame flavor, but my tastes probably aren't very typical. I REALLY like sesame desserts. Adding a drizzle of maple syrup and a small pile of corn flakes were a nice touch and really enhanced the dish. The chocolate souffle was also very very good. With a texture that got progressively more gooey toward the middle, the souffle was dark and rich, but not too sweet. It paired perfectly with the vanilla ice cream.

I will give Musha another try so that I can sample the dishes that weren't available on this visit. My guess is that I was not able to experience all that Musha has to offer. That being said, my initial impression is that Musha is quite overpriced for what you get. I don't mind paying Musha's prices, but for those prices I expect to get something a bit more special than what I got.

Enrique's Mexican Restaurant - Bellflower

Today my coworkers and I tried out Enrique's Mexican Restaurant in Bellflower. I offered up Enrique's or Toko Rame as options. Both of these are on my list of restaurants to try and fairly close to our office in Compton. One of our PMs Rob, who apparently doesn't eat anything but burgers, buffalo wings and other American foods that will give you a heart attack, wasn't into the Indonesian option, so Mexican it was. Enrique's is a place you could easily drive by every day of your life and never notice. It's hidden away in the corner of a shopping center with a sign that almost blends right into the building. On walking into the restaurant, the first thing I noticed was how much smaller the place was on the inside than I expected. There's a large bar/waiting area that's pretty much a waste of space and a separate room where the tables were located. The place definitely wasn't packed and our party of 9 was seated right away.

I ordered the Chile Rellenos and Chicken Tostada plate, which was about $8, and enjoyed some pretty standard chips and salsa. The salsa was very fresh and tasty, but without much heat. The picture on the left shows some of the other dishes that were ordered. Look at the size of that burrito! It's about 2 fists worth of grub. Across from the giant burrito is the 3 taquito plate. Our token Mexican Oscar commented that the taquitos had marks where toothpicks were used to hold the rolls together. I don't know if this means anything at all, but he seemed impressed about it. Maybe that's how his dear old grandma makes them or something. For all I know, that's the only way to make them.




I started with the tostada, which was sort of a disappointment. It was okay I guess, but the chicken was a bit dry and not very tasty. I asked Oscar how you're supposed to eat a tostada.. by hand or by fork. He wasn't much help. I proceeded to heap salsa on the rest of my tostada to kick up the flavor. The rice and beans were similarly bland. Maybe that's the authentic way to enjoy beans and rice, but I want some flavor in there!

Luckily, the chili relleno saved the meal. And I have to say that it REALLY saved the meal. Next time I visit Enrique's, it'll be worth it just for the chili rellenos. I was amazed at how something that seemed so simple could taste so amazing. A perfect harmony of the smokey tangy red sauce, the spicy heat of the chili pepper, the smooth chewy cheese and the spongey flavorful fried batter just made every bite something to relish. This part of the dish made up for everything else that was missing. Everyone else enjoyed their meals also even though only a third of the giant burrito got eaten.

I'll have to visit Enrique's a few more times and try more of their menu to get a better idea of the place, but I will say that it's worth the trip for the chili rellenos alone. Simple and delicious.

Enrique's Mexican Restaurant
17244 Downey Ave
Bellflower, CA 90706
(562) 602-1070

Biggest Loser Contest Over! My Food Map

After 12 weeks of eating oatmeal, wheat bread+turkey meat, boiled broccoli and grilled chicken breasts, the "biggest loser" contest that I was competing in finally came to an end today. For those of you who haven't heard already, I've been competing with 10 of my coworkers to see who can lose the most percentage weight over a 12 week period. All humility aside, I smoked the competition with a 14.58% weight loss. I weighed in at 182.4 lbs on May 15 and weighed in today (July 31) at 155.8 lbs. My reward was an envelope with 11 hundred dollar bills in it with "Haol = Big LOSER" written in red ink across the front. I've been planning this whole time to finally invest in an HDTV and move into the hi-def world. It's always been kind of sad that I work at a company that deals with high-end audio and video equipment and still go home to a 32 inch hand-me-down CRT. Now that I've actually got the money though, I'm not too sure what I'm going to do. The 32 inch works fine and I really have no complaints with it. Getting a new TV just means that I have to invest in an HD cable plan and such. What to do.. what to do...

So in the last couple weeks of this contest, the lack of flavorful food was starting to wear on me. I have to say that I did break down a couple times and indulged myself toward the end. I had an amazing meal prepared by my friend Joe's girlfriend Duc in San Francisco a couple weeks ago. On that same weekend, we ate dim sum and my willpower left me. I also started to spend a lot of time researching highly recommended eateries around LA. This led to a project to document all of the restaurants that I want to try out in LA and all of my favorite places to eat in LA, Houston and Austin. You can see the Google Map that resulted from this project below.


View Larger Map

I'm also in the process of transferring all of these picks to my Tom Tom GPS so that I can always find a place to eat no matter where I am in the city.

B&R's Old Fashion Burgers - Hawthorne

One of the finds that resulted from my Food Map was B&R's Old Fashion Burgers in Hawthorne. When I read about their signature burger, the Monster Royal burger, I knew that I had to visit this place. The Monster Royal burger has 2 8-ounce beef patties, a fried egg, chili, cheese, bacon or pastrami, lettuce, tomato, etc. etc. This monstrosity costs a total of $7.65. I said $7.65!!! That is obscenely low for Los Angeles. So when the Biggest Loser was all finished and I had the cash in my pocket, I invited all the participants to lunch at B&R's since it's only about 15min from our office.

As we ventured deep into Hawthorne, jokes about gang violence and getting shot started. Let's just say that this is not the most luxurious city in LA. The place was fine though.. with a several friendly looking people hanging out along the street on a Thursday afternoon.


One interesting thing I noticed about the place right away was that there were plenty of tables, but only about half the chairs that you'd need for all those tables. The place seemed to be designed more for lounging and waiting for your food than actually sitting down and eating there. Maybe most of their business is takeout. Also, almost no AC. I guess when your prices are this low, you have to try and keep the energy bill down as much as possible.

There were maybe a dozen other diners in the place when we got there. It was a mix of folks who were probably local regulars and people like us who had obviously come from an office building somewhere. I'm sure there aren't too many office buildings nearby, so they probably drove a bit to get there like us. The nine of us got in line and ordered and I paid. The bill was about $63 for 9 people. Again, for LA this is unbelievably cheap.

The FOOD

After waiting about 30 min, my coworkers started getting restless and I got a little nervous about bringing all my coworkers out so far to wait over 30min for a burger. The food had better be good! It took almost 45 minutes for our food to finally come out, but the complaints stopped as soon as the food hit the table.

I mean, just look at this thing! The beef patty is like an inch and a half tall. This is the Chili Cheese King Burger. Cost: $5.50 plus a couple more bucks for the fries and a very good lemonade. Not homemade lemonade, but still very refreshing.. like the kind you get at Sonic. Also, they use that kind of crushed ice that I just love. It almost makes your drink like a chewy slushie if you take the top off and drink it without a lid or straw. I like chewing ice with my drinks. Sue me.

B&R serves a no-frills, delicious burger; probably the best burger for the money that I've ever had anywhere. No fancy toppings or sauces. No bleu cheese or caramelized onions. No arugula. Just lettuce, tomato, cheese, great buns toasted just right and a huge, juicy well-cooked beef patty. No fancy seasonings to distract you from the pure beef taste that explodes into your mouth on the way to your stomach, and eventually your arteries.

After 12 weeks of dieting, this single meal probably had about the same number of calories that I was eating daily. It was worth it though. My stomach was comfortably satisfied for the rest of the day. Even by dinner time, I still wasn't really very hungry. I had a bowl of Fiber One cereal and called it a night.

Someday when I'm feeling extra brave, I'll take on the Monster Royal Burger.

B&R's Old Fashion Burgers

3512 WEST ROSECRANS AVE. HAWTHORNE, CALIFORNIA 90250

PHONE: 310.679.4774 FAX: 310.679.2464