Maestro's Steak House

I wish that many people in my life were equipped with a switch located on the back of their heads where I could shut them down or power them back up at my leisure. I would for sure flip the off switch on anyone who tried to get me to come back to Mastro's Steakhouse. After dinner here last night, I concluded that I am sick of this overpriced and under flavored high end steakhouse horseshit and Mastro's is the last pile of dung that I care to step in. Finished, I tell you. I got a nice bone in filet, which was well aged and cooked a proper medium rare all served on a sizzling platter. Also, some very decent brussel sprouts, sauteed spinach, scalloped potatoes, and a chopped salad. And some oysters Rockerfeller to start out. But I could have bailed out of jail for less money. More than 50 bucks for a steak like this was more like aggravated sodomy than it was highway robbery. The vegetables were good, but very very salty. I felt this meal had so much salt in it that I was being cured like a country ham from the inside. The potatoes as well. I did not know that cheese was the star topping on oysters Rockerfeller. I thought it was supposed to be Hollandaise sauce. The chopped salad was tasty and served in a cold bowl, but it was really a Greek Salad and should have been labeled as such. But I want to point out the highlights of this meal. The pretzel bread, and all the breads for that matter were out of this world good. I mean fantastic. The chopped salad was worth every cent of the 12 bucks that it cost. Also, I felt that the busboys and runners were very friendly, kind and professional. Our server was too, but the busboy and the runners attitudes were really impressive. When I was eating my filet, I kept thinking "COLD ROAST BEEF" as in a Stephen King short story. This hunk of beef was just a waste of a great steak. I kept wondering how this thing would have tasted if I had ordered the same cut at Park's BBQ, Solwoon Galbi, or Soot Bull Jeep. I am sure that the Koreans would have converted the filet into something well seasoned, tasty, satisfying and worthy. Grilled over charcoal, of course. American steakhouses need to take their un-imaginative preparations of beef served in mammoth portions and ram it up their snouts. This steak was so anti climactic that I almost felt like I needed to jerk off when I got home.

Clearman's North Woods Inn

On the way back from a magnificent hike up the sacred Mount Baldy this afternoon, the hunger pangs set in once we headed down the hill. My wife grew up in Mexico, and therefore has deep admiration and fascination with foods such as cheese toast and mushroom gravy and places like Damon's, Taylors, the North Woods Inn and the Dal Rae. Her mother never made macaroni and cheese, salisbury steak, or cream of mushroom soup. There were no steak and potatoes over there. The North Woods Inn is the type of place that my wife fantasized about eating as she sat there with a tortilla rolled up in her little hand over a bowl of pozole. It was really fun to see her having so much fun at this place and contributes generously to my 3 star rating. I had been here on one previous occasion with my dad and Uncle Bill, back around the Bicentennial, and it was probably this very same location. It still looks like a dark cabin complete with deer hoof gun racks and snowshoes mounted on the walls. On my first visit as a kid I ordered a chili dog. My uncle chain-smoked Pall Malls at the dinner table and ordered several giant beers before he drove us all home drunk in his Ford LTD. Those were the good old days. Little, it seems, has changed save the no smoking policy and the trebling of the prices. The cabbage slaw and bleu cheese iceberg salad were very good. The lettuce was crispy and cold and the red slaw tossed in a nice oil and vinegar dressing was quite tasty. They also make a mean cheese toast here. It would have been prudent to stop at this point, but we both continued to eat until we contracted a severe case of butter poisoning. And the entrees were more or less what you might get at a place like the Sizzler if you paid an additional twenty bucks. I noticed that they had a taxidermy bear in a glass case in the lobby. I don't approve of using bears for decoration, but the deer hoof gun racks are more or less acceptable.

Marouch Restaurant

My best friend is Tracy and we met in the Summer of 84 at a bus stop on Wilshire Blvd. on the way to the 321 Club in Santa Monica. Fifty years and several hundred hits of acid later, we are still hanging out. She has been a vegetarian since as long as I can remember and convinced my brother Paul to become a lifelong vegetarian in 1985. Eating dinner with old friends is one of the best things about the human species. The last time she was in town, we went to Shojin, which I regard as the finest vegetarian place in the entire City of Los Angeles. This time around, we went to Marouch and ordered the Meza for 4 ($75.00). They were happy to make everything vegetarian and every single dish was fantastic. Every single item could not possibly have been improved upon. My very favorites this time were the perfect, crispy falafels with tahini and the fattoush salad. A great place to eat with your best friends, especially if they are vegetarians!

Soowon Galbi Korean BBQ Restaurant

Every time I come here I am just astonished by the outstanding quality of the short ribs, beautiful marinated sliced rib eye, the banchan, the outstanding, flawless service, the bargain price and everything else. Since I live in Koreatown, I wake up and go to bed smelling broiling beef in the air, but there are only a few BBQ places that are worthy. The other ones are Chosun, Parks, and Soot Bull Jeep. I do not patronize all you can eat places. Soowon is a FF (Fucking Flawless) Korean BBQ place. The delicious banchan, the perfectly marbled beef, the soup and (flawless) service will leave you in a state of utter happiness. I came in here at 3PM on a Saturday, so there were only a couple of other parties eating here. I was surprised at how attentive the servers were and how I did have to ask for anything at all. The price that you pay is pretty low considering that this is one of the very best pieces of meat available for any price in Los Angeles. I'm truly impressed. 've been back a couple of times since my original visit. I have never been disappointed and the food remained mind blowing good. The team service here is perfect. Your servers will make sure that you are well taken care of. Prime Korean BBQ, some quality time with your grown children, and the afternoon off of work....life does not get much sweeter than this!

Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest

One of those places that exceeds the splendor of anything and everything manmade. People thought this was:

hunt and henriques

Making prank calls was my very favorite thing to do as a little kid. No, wait, prank calls are still my favorite thing to do and this place brings out the inner Bart SImpson in me! The managing partner of this law firm is named Mike Hunt, the best punchline ever! Hunt and Henriques is the largest collection firm in California. They make their living off of the faulty lending practices of banks like Capital One, and CItibank suing people for credit cards that never should have been issued in the first place. If these people ever contact you, remember that they can't do anything at all to hurt you unless they know where you work or where you have a bank account. You have no obligation to talk to them whatsoever, and they cannot contact you by phone again if you specifically tell them not to. Also, they could put a lien on your property if you have one, but most people they sue do not. Also, most people who this company sues will qualify for a bankruptcy. If they already have sued you, a bankruptcy will not make your credit a hell of a lot worse. The best strategy to use on these people is to make fun of them and to prank them on the phone. Remember, act serious, they are not expecting to be ambushed over the phone. H&H- "Hello, Hunt and Henriques, this call is being recorded for quality assurance and is an attempt to collect a debt....." Me- "Can I please speak with Mike Hunt?" H&H- "Sir, have you ever spoken to Mike Hunt before? Me-"How filthy, I never." Damn, it is funny to be childish. And no matter how old you get, the joke is still pretty funny. And you could not dream up a better collection of mean-spirited people to poke gentle fun of!

Inspiration Point Via Castle Canyon

could not wait to come back here, so I picked the hottest day of the Summer so far, and let me tell you folks, this trail is a real ass kicker! If you are jogging, you are probably burning around 800 calories an hour so make sure to have eaten plenty of rice or steamed potatoes the night before you set out. Drink a shitload of water before, too! There was not much traffic on the trail at all. I saw a few nice folks on the Sam Merrill Trail on the way up, but there was not another human soul in Castle Canyon yesterday afternoon. If you ever want to get connected with the spirit of Summer, then you could do a lot worse than this trail. It is hot and just keeps getting hotter. The rocks are like charcoal briquettes and just toasted me yesterday. There was no shade at all. The last time