The fine folks behind the wheel and grill of Buttermilk Truck tweeted their arrival to Melrose Avenue near Orlando just as I was about to hop on my bike and head in to work. And while their location this morning would require a decent deviation from my normal Silver Lake-to-Westchester route, it was an offer me and my hunger pangs couldn’t refuse. So I tweeted back for them to keep an eye out for a drooling cyclist and away I went West Hollywood-ward, crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t roll up on the recently launched vehicle to find the kind of crazy appetite-killing crowds these portable eateries are prone to attract.

Hallelujah! Rounding the corner from Kings Road onto Melrose I found the truck open for business at the curb and was relieved to take my place in a short queue that tripled in size within mintues of my arrival. Within a few more minutes of ordering and confirming to owner Gigi Pascual that I was indeed the drool-prone cyclist who tweeted (I hope my helmet gave it away and not any excessive salivations), my tastebuds were transported to Awesometown, taken there by their decadent Red Velvet & Chocolate Chips Pancake Bites ($5), and savory Buttermilk Biscuit Breakfast Sammich with applewood smoked bacon and a side patty of rosemary & garlic hashbrowns ($4), pictured at right.

Needless to say, I’ll be back and I highly recommend you check them out.

On the web: Buttermilk Inc.
Twitter: @ButtermilkTruck

Conserve Water! Drink More Broguiere’s Egg Nog!

“My name’s Jiggy and I approve this message.”

You can haunt/stalk the refrigerated sections of various grocers and minimarts in crapshoot hopes of finding some still on the shelves or maybe if you’re lucky that one bottle way in the back behind the buttermilk that some covetous bagboy buried there in some vain attempt of it eluding capture.

Or you can find the patience to wait until sometime next month when San Francisco-based Strauss’ reportedly awesome version of the holiday nectar arrives at whichever upscale marts carry it.

My wife Susan and me? We opt to cut out the gambling and the middleman and the interminable waiting for an out-of-town product and instead support our local awesomeness with a cruise out to the industrial flats of Montebello to go get some of the limited-time glass-encased lusciousness.

You should to too:

Broguiere’s Dairy
505 S. Maple Avenue
Montebello, CA 90640

Seventeen art gallery’s and studios will be hosting the Inglewood Art Walk this weekend.   Courtesy the Parks and Recreation Department there will be free Trolley Tours taking you along the route.  The complete map of the route can be downloaded HERE.

Among the participants are two of my favorite artists Ginger Van Hook (photography) and Luke Van Hook (painting).  They will be hosting the closing reception 5-7Pm on Sunday 11/15 at their studio located at 703 E Hyde Park Blvd, Inglewood, CA.

More information on the artists and art can be found at the Inglewood Open Studio blog.

Photo “Hot Pink Peppers”  by Ginger Van Hook and used with permission.

For Angelenos needing to shop at IKEA, the Carson and Burbank locations are the usual choices.  I go to the Carson location, not just because it is closer to my home, but because, at the other end of the shopping center sits Five Guys Burgers.  Five Guys is not new to these pages,  having been (mixed) reviewed by Faboomama and commented on by others.  But it’s all subjective, and, subjectively, I love the place (disclosure/confession: I used to go to their original DC-area locations).

So now, I rarely (ok, never) go to IKEA without hitting Five Guys.  One triggers the other, just like a ciggy in a bar.  Plus, I figure I deserve it after getting that thousand yard IKEA Stare after an hour or so inside the Swedish happy torture factory.  As to whether the trip to IKEA was really necessary in the first place, or just an excuse for a Five Guys burger & fries, I’ll never te-ell….

Learn how to make Tamales at Tarascos on Nov. 17

For those of you who like to know how to make stuff, my favorite Mexican joint in Silver Lake, Tarascos is hosting a Tamale Class on Tuesday, November 17 at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. The class is only $15.00, which includes all of the  materials you will need to make a small batch of your very own tamales from scratch.

Students will have the option to take their tamales home to bake on their own or Tarascos will bake the tamales for you and let you pick them up later (tamales take about 4 hours to bake).  Students will learn how to make chicken, cheese and vegetarian tamales.

To sign up, call Tarascos at 323.669.3300. Click here to follow Tarascos on twitter for their daily specials.

Buttermilk Truck's Red Velvet Cupcakes

With the explosion of specialty food trucks on the LA food scene over the past year or so, fueled in part by the immense popularity of Kogi BBQ, the undisputed monarch of motorized food purveyors, announcements of new food trucks were becoming somewhat noisy and commonplace. Sipping a cocktail at a bar one night, I overheard a couple gush about The Grilled Cheese Truck. Getting a pedicure, I witnessed the entire staff at the nail salon go nuts over the Nom Nom Truck. Just as I my inner cynic began to roll her eyes and slap a jumped shark sticker on the bumper of the food truck craze, someone said two magical words that snapped me right out of it, like a plunge into an ice cold bath.

“Buttermilk Truck.” I could almost smell the warm vanilla in the air when I heard those words.

Buttermilk Truck, scheduled to launch this Wednesday, November 11 at The Brig in Venice, is a “breakfast diner on wheels,” boasting chicken and cinnamon waffles, red velvet cupcakes, Hawaiian bread breakfast sliders and more. They make their pastries from scratch and even offer a late night menu – because we all know the best time to have breakfast is before the sun rises.

Hawaiian Bread Breakfast Sliders

Like many of LA’s nouveau gourmet food trucks, you can follow Buttermilk Truck on twitter to keep up with where they are going to park their truck next. Also, LAist has compiled a rather comprehensive twitter list of just about every food truck in town. <——– Just click there to access the list.

I may not be able to make it to Buttermilk Truck’s launch this Wednesday, but you can guarantee that I will be the first in line when they drop by Silver Lake.

For more information on Buttermilk Truck and to check out their complete menu, visit them at http://buttermilktruck.com/.

This morning, Harold and I were sitting at the counter at Millie’s waiting for our breakfast and I noticed how the potatoes, pancakes and french toast all share the same tight grill space as the corned beef hash, bacon, sausage and pork chops. I’m not vegetarian, but I began to wonder if this is something that bothers vegetarians. Are you OK knowing that your rosemary potatoes are cooked within inches of bacon and the same spatula used to flip a hamburger patty is used to shovel those meatless potatoes onto your plate? Is it OK if meat juices touch your veggies as long as you don’t actually eat the meat? Are these potatoes still fit for a vegetarian diet? I don’t have a strong opinion on this, so I ask you vegetarians: How far will you go to make sure that your food is prepared in a meatless environment?

A fresh batch of rosemary potatoes are thrown on the grill

Millie's Busy Breakfast Grill

Dan over at Drink:Eat:Play is putting on another one of those classy dress up fun events this weekend.  They are transforming the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel into a 1920’s “Speak Easy”.  The tickets are valued at $75 each so this is no slouch of a give away.  Tix include unlimited cocktails in the Speak Easy lounge made from the best whiskey, scotch and gin with the help of The Edison and K&L Wine merchants.

To win.  Tell me your favorite classic cocktail (my choice varies, classic martini, side car or cosmopolitan).   Tell me the ingredients.  Make sure you include a legit email address so I can collect your information for ticket pick up at will call.  Sorry, since this is a booze filled event you must be 21 to enter.  Remember this is a classy event so you have to dress accordingly.  First two complete responses win!

For those of you not fortunate enough to win tix you can order your general admission tix here.  For those of you wanting to splurge for the VIP tickets that include access to a private lounge with all sorts of extra goodies at $150 you can order your tickets here.

Deets: Nov 7, 8PM-11PM,  Hollywood Renaissance Hotel, 1755 N Highland Ave, Hollywood 90028

There is a distinct breed of family restaurant founded in spades across the nation between the 40s and the 50s, few of which survive, that provided a Disneyana environment where the family could dine surrounded by a Yogi Bear-era “outdoor” look: faux trees, the occasional water feature, “log cabin” woodwork, abundant taxidermy. Clearman’s North Woods Inn, in San Gabriel, is one such institution.

I happened to be passing there the other day while spending quality time with the Mom. I went to Clearman’s only once, long ago, when I was in junior high school. For reasons that will forever remain elusive I had developed a passion for miniatures, along with another girl in my class, and the two of us made plans to go–or rather, made plans for our moms to drive us–down to San Gabriel where a miniature store sold itty-bitty pieces of handpainted china for lilliputian table settings to be set in itty bitty houses. Clearman’s happened to be right next door.

My friend had been there before. “You have to get the potato with the cheese butter,” she announced. Her mom, petite as a chihuahua and as perky, leaned over the table toward my mother and I. ‘CHEESE BUTTER,” she said in a low whisper… (more…)

A fair amount of cool things have come across my desk for this weekend…

Friday: DineLA Restaurant Week
Be warned: Restaurant Week’s low prices do NOT apply on the weekends. So Thursday & Friday’s your last chance to nab reservations to some of LA’s hottest joints like Chaya, Mr. Chow, Akasha, Arroyo Chop House, BLT Steak, even Royal/T (pretty much every place you wanna eat is participating…check here). Prices for these special price-fixe lunches & dinners top out at $44 per person at even the most snooty of steakhouses, so dash on over & make reservations asap!

Saturday: 26th Annual Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour
The Art Deco Society presents its yearly tour of that star of the cinema scene, Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  It’s a one-day-only event, but tours depart every 20 minutes or so from 10am to noon. It’s a walkthru not only of Hollywood history–many of the stars of the Golden Era of cinema are interred here–but architectural styles as well, with gorgeous mausoleums & monuments.

Friday thru Sunday: The Bead Show
Attention, crafty people and my mom! Time to geek out on beads at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. If you’re like me, you’ll go, ooh and ahh over amazing beads, buy them, and then never do anything with them. But if you’re not like me, I can’t wait to see what you create!

Sunday: LA Luxury Chocolate Salon
Thousands of opportunities to sample chocolate, plus an art-meets-chocolate smackdown as top students from the California School of Culinary Arts attempt to create masterworks of fine art with chocolate. There will be a cocktail bar as well, with chocolate-based apéritifs.

Sunday: Part Time Punks Festival at The Echo
From 2pm to 2am these savants of all things musical and underground will be parading a veritable smorgasbord of awesome across the stage at the Echo.  Check out a DJ set from Gang Of Four, and music from Savage Republic, Abe Vigoda, Viv Albertine of The Slits, Rainbow/\Arabia, Brendan Mullen of The Masque, and gobs more.

Monday: Wumpskate at World on Wheels
It’s that time again:  The spookiest month of the year and goth roller skating collide for Wumpskate’s annual Halloween-themed skate night.  Costumes are, of course, mandatory insomuch as you will be totally scorned if you show up without one.  These goths don’t take themselves too seriously, though (who can, when they’re on a pair of tan-and-orange quad skates from 1982?), so prepare to have some serious fun.