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Tag Archive: Manila Machine

January 20, 2011

This Weekend: Manila Machine Wine Pairing, La Descarga Feast, $8 Drago Cocktails

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Another gorgeous weekend. What have you got planned?

Thursday, January 20

Buy Tickets for Moveable Feast at La Descarga
This amazing-sounding food event isn’t til January 30 but figured I’d give you a heads-up now before it sells out since there is limited space. There will be Cuban-inspired appetizers by Moveable Feast chef Meg Hall�and a�special cocktail created by La Descarga’s own Steve Livigni just for the event. And before you think this is your one chance to show up in Lazy Sunday clothes at LD, think again. Cocktail attire only.

Tickets $50 for Sunday, January 30 event. La Descarga, 1159 Western Avenue, Hollywood (map).

Wine, Dine and Style at Studio DNA
My favorite salon is kicking off a special weekly event tonight where you can drink wine and mimosas and enjoy food truck fare while getting your beauty treatment. Every Thursday night (and Saturday afternoon), three food trucks will arrive to feed the hungry, beautified masses. Trucks tonight include Greens on Wheelz, Shrimp Pimp and The Hungry Nomad. There will also be a Bumble & Bumble blowout sale at 6pm.

Studio DNA Santa Monica, 902 Broadway Avenue, Santa Monica (map). Appointments: (310) 451-3200.

Drago Centro Debuts Winter Cocktails for $8
Score $12 cocktails for only $8 tonight at Drago Centro’s reveal of its new seasonally inspired drinks. Out of the eight cocktails, the Smoke on the Horizon with dark rum, Drambuie, Carpano Antica and mole bitters and the January Jones with Appleton Rum, demerrara syrup, cinnamon bitters, butter and star anise sound intriguing.

5pm. Drago Centro, 525 S. Flower Street, Downtown (map). (213) 228-8998.

Sunday, January 23

William Friedkin Double Feature: Sorcerer and The Exorcist
Even though it was made in 1973, The Exorcist holds its spot atop my list as the best horror film. And even though I am not familiar with Friedkin’s Sorcerer, I’d be willing to see it since the director is slated to speak between the two films. Get to ask him questions!

7:30pm. $11. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica (map).

Dine LA Restaurant Week Starts
Restaurant week is back, a great way to get you off your couch and out enjoying what our fine city has to offer. You have 296 restaurants to choose from but better start making your reservations now before your favorites get all booked up. Restaurant week spans January 23 to January 28 and January 30 to February 4. Prix-fixe lunches are $16, $22 or $28 and dinners are $26, $34 or $44. Hmm, where to go, where to go?

Manila Machine Filipino Food and Wine Pairing at Domaine LA
One of my favorite food trucks, Manila Machine, the first Filipino food truck, is joining wine shop Domaine LA to create a unique pairing of Filipino food and French and Italian wines.

Here’s the tasting menu with pairings by Domaine LA’s Whitney Adams having and Jesse Brawner:

NV Sommariva Prosecco – classic sparkling from the Valdobbiadene region, on the dry end,� to be paired with the lumpiang shanghai
2009 Pigeoulet en Provence Blanc – white Rhone blend to be paired with the Original Manila Dip slider
2009 BioVio Rossese – lighter, biodynamic Ligurian red to be paired with the sisig (pork cheeks over rice)
2009 Marionnet Touraine Gamay – Loire Valley high acid red to be paired wtih the Tapsilog (beef with garlic fried rice and egg)
2007 Bera Moscato d’Asti – Italian dessert wine to be paired with the ube cupcakes

2-5pm. $20 advance, $24 door. Domaine LA, 6801 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles (map).

Categories: Dining, Lists, Los Angeles, Movies

This Weekend: Foodie Workouts, Bastide Cocktail Hour, Filipino Tasting Event

This weekend is gonna rawk! Not just because of the LA Street Food Fest Summer Tasting Event, which hopefully you’ve gotten your tickets for, but because there’s so much to do. Take your pick or do ‘em all.

Thursday, July 22

Villains Grand Opening
Thrillist calls this new bar a “steampunk-themed cocktail bar” and it officially opens tomorrow but the grand opening party is tonight so if the streets seem a bit emptier it’s because everyone’s at that party. I kid, sorta. But if you’re a fan of the Bordello Bar (the owner and designer is also the creative mind and money behind this one) as well as beer and bourbon, you’ll want to check this place out. Juices for the cocktails are “squeezed to order” and they have a variety of 28 beers on tap.

Villains Tavern, 1356 Palmetto Street, Los Angeles (map).

Friday, July 23

Six Taste to host LA’s First Filipino Food and Wine Tasting Event
Yay for Filipino food getting some love thanks to the likes of the first Filipino food truck, Manila Machine. But if you haven’t tried the cuisine of my peeps yet, Six Taste Food Tours will feature a traditional Filipino and Filipino-inspired five-course tasting menu that will be paired with wine! Bonus is that Manila Machine will provide the dessert. Hopefully it’s the yummy ube cupcake. After the event, there will be a live DJ and some cocktails so you can work off that delicious meal.

7pm. $49. Far Bar LA, 347 E 1st Street, Los Angeles (map).

Saturday, July 24

Devil’s Drive In: Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction has gotta be my favorite Tarantino film, right up there with Kill Bill, of course. But so many great one-liners. “Bring out the Gimp!” You can also thank (or curse) Pulp Fiction for jumpstarting John Travolta’s career. BYOB and grab a patch of Astroturf and enjoy this outdoor screening.

7pm. 240 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles (map)

Sunday, July 25

Yoga for Foodies at Akasha
What a great way to start off the week: a flowing yoga class at a sustainable pace followed by a yummy organic brunch of farm-to-table food created by Akasha Richmond, who actually began her career at Yogi Bhajan’s Golden Temple Conscious Cookery. Menu items include a local farm egg and goat cheese frittata, Punjabi focaccia and ginger-mint lemonade.

11am-1pm. $54. Akasha, 9543 Culver Boulevard, Culver City (map). (310) 845-1700.

Foodie Fitness/LA/OC Foodventures’ Urban Hike on Colorado Boulevard
I just love these urban hikes that HC puts on. A great way to explore and be a tourist in your own city. This month’s edition will cover that long stretch of Colorado Boulevard. 14 miles from Glendale to Arcadia. And of course, HC has planned for some foodie-friendly pitstops along the way. If you don’t feel like walking the whole way, I’m certainly not, you can follow HC’s live Tweets and meet up with us whenever.

8am. Intersection of Kenworth and Colorado in Glendale (map).

Food GPS Beverly Blvd Walking Tour
If HC’s urban hike is too hard-core for you and you just want to eat dammit, check out Food GPS’s walking tour which will hit four popular restaurants on and around Beverly Boulevard — Eva, BLD, Milk and Golden State! All great places to dine, good thing you’ll be burning calories by walking. The $45 per person includes food, drinks and treats from each place where the chef-owner will introduce their picks. For more info email Josh at Joshua [at] foodgps.com.

3pm. Tickets: $45. Starting point: Eva Restaurant,7458 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles (map).

Monday, July 26

Debut of Mondays at Bastide
If you’re a hard-core foodie, you saw the above words and squealed. Yes, this Monday Bastide is kicking off a new cocktail hour where you can enjoy a soju martini, three different wines by the glass, a new weekly cocktail and chef Joseph Mahon’s small bites like crispy corn nuggets and yellowtail tartare with coconut. It’s all you can eat and drink for just $15! Swank!

5-7pm. Mondays. Bastide, 8475 Melrose Place, West Hollywood (map).

Categories: Cocktails, Dining, Lists, Los Angeles, Movies, Nightlife, Recreation

6 Comments

July 15, 2010

This Weekend: Ilegal Mescal Happy Hour, Drunk Talk, Manila Tasting

Idiots with Zoe Saldana & Kate Bosworth from Zoe Saldana

Finally! This weather feels like summer and we can play outside again. Many fun outdoor events this weekend. And some still fun even though they’re indoors.

Thursday, July 15

Chartreuse and Ilegal Mezcal Cocktail Night
Mmmezcal, just makes my mouth water. Fortunately, Chartreuse and Ilegal Mezcal will be doing up a very special happy hour ($5 signature cocktails) featuring these tasty spirits. There will also be tasting flights available! Other happy hour deals include $4 Imported Beers and $3 Small Plates.

7-9pm. The Association, 110 E 6th Street, Downtown (map).

Saturday, July 17

Tasting with the Manila Machine
Get the Manila Machine Filipino food truck all to yourself. Well, almost. This pre-paid tasting event will insure you don’t have to suffer the fate of sold-out ube cupcakes. Believe me, you don’t want to know what that feels like. At this event, for $21 you get to enjoy spam sliders, chicken adobo, sisig over rice and, yes, the ube cupcake. Pull up a lawn chair and nosh on some fine food truck delicacies.

1pm. $21. Location TBA.

Cinespia Cemetery Screening: Saturday Night Fever
This disco-era movie starring the cute-back-then dancing fool Johnny Travolta has one of the best movie soundtracks ever! Come on, it’s the Bee Gees! I know, a lot of you are probably too young to know who they are but take my word for it, they’re awesome. If that doesn’t get you, maybe the fact that DJ Cut Chemist spinning before and after the movie will. Don’t forget to bring your carafe of disco drink. BTW what DID they drink back then in Studio 54? Oh, and remember, no tall chairs dammit!

Gates open 7:30pm, movie 8pm. $10. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles (map)

Sunday, July 18

New LA Flea Market
Can’t wait for the LA Street Food Fest next week featuring a bunch of food trucks? Well, maybe this will tie you over til then. Nosh on treats from food trucks Dosa, Border Grill and Cool Haus while bargain shopping at the grand opening of the LA Flea market. General admission with parking is $5, VIP tickets are $15.

9am-4pm. $5-$15. Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park Avenue, Los Angeles (map).

Drunk Talk, Full-Immersion Live Comedy at Dragonfly Bar
Is it just me or are conversations more interesting when they’re fueled by drink? See, Drunk History. And check out this new comedy show which has incorporated a real bar into a comedy event. Is that bar fly leaning against you and slurring drunken nothings into your ear fer real or are they part of the show? You may never know. But enjoy improv, drunken comedy and a free cocktail at this unique show.

8pm. $15. Dragonfly Bar, 6510 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles (map).

Categories: Dining, Lists, Los Angeles, Movies

And Now for Something Completely Different: Manila Machine Filipino Food Truck

Noms Not Bombs enjoying chicken adobo by Caroline on Crack

Misty of Noms Not Bombs enjoying chicken adobo.

I finally had my first Manila Machine Filipino food truck experience last week after what seemed like weeks of near misses. Nastassia Johnson, co-founder of L.A.’s first Filipino food truck and the talented baker/blogger of Let Me Eat Cake, did give me a taste of the fare via her ube cupcakes that she sold at the Eat My Blog bake sale, but I wanted MORE! Fortunately the cupcakes (recipe here) are also sold at the truck. But unfortunately, they tend to sell out pretty quickly.

Manila Machine's Original Manila Dip by Caroline on Crack.

Manila Machine's Original Manila Dip sliders.

First thing’s first, full disclosure: I’m Filipino so I have a soft spot for the Manila Machine. I love that Nastassia and her food truck partner, Marvin Gapultos of blog Burnt Lumpia, are opening up Angelenos’ eyes and palates to Filipino food — a cuisine influenced by Spanish, Chinese and other cultures. As it is our cuisine hasn’t really been accepted in mainstream America. But now hopefully everyone else will discover the joys of chicken adobo — chicken marinated in soy, garlic and vinegar.

So when Nastassia tweeted that the truck would be at T Lofts in West L.A. near my day job, I jumped on my Vespa and scooted on over. I timed it just right by showing up an hour before they were scheduled to leave because there were zero lines by then. Compared to when the truck first opened its windows to the awaiting masses.

Nastassia was manning the pickup window while her boyfriend was taking the orders. Her regular chef had flaked out for the day so it was a family affair with her brother and Marvin doing the cooking.

As much as I was curious to taste the chicken adobo dish I instead got the Original Manila Dip — two sliders on pan de sal and served with adobo dipping sauce. One slider was shredded chicken adobo with caramelized onions and the other beef marinated in sweet calmansi. For good measure, I also ordered up a couple of lumpia (pork egg rolls) and the turon (banana lumpia). All that for $10. Everything is in these affordable portions so you can mix and match.

The groovy Manila Machine.

Fancy sliders, what with the use of pan de sal bread; “salt” rolls that may remind folks of sweet Hawaiian bread. This definitely isn’t my mama’s Filipino food. The meat of the chicken adobo and the beef were tender and, like the lumpia, weren’t as greasy as my mom’s; sorry, Mom.

And I’ve never had turon like this before. The original version calls for the banana lumpia to be rolled in brown sugar and fried. Here, it’s drizzled with caramel sauce. So decadent, sweet and sticky. Keep some Wet Naps handy.

But the piece de resistance has to be Nastassia’s ube cupcakes with the coconut frosting. Moist, flavorful cake which pairs so perfectly with the coconut frosting. I can’t have just one.

If I had to complain about something, though, it would be that the food is not really packaged to-go and you need two hands and lots of napkins to eat them, especially that sticky turon. There is a nice shelf on the truck where I just set my containers but what to do if there are lots of people gathered around the order and pickup windows? Also it would be difficult to balance all those containers to take back to my desk should the Manila Machine park at food truck alley near my office in Santa Monica, ahem. Minor issues for sure, but just sayin’.

The menu changes regularly so check with the MM’s site to see what they’re serving up at the truck this week. Mm, spam sliders! I wonder when they’ll have lechon, specifically lechon kawali. The truck also has breakfast with dishes like a pan de sal French toast and spam with garlic fried rice and a fried egg and weekly specials should you be lucky enough to catch them during morning hours.

In any case, great job, Nastassia and Marvin! And thanks for spreading the gospel of Filipino food.

Twitter: @ManilaMachine
Facebook: The Manila Machine

Categories: Dining, Los Angeles, Sweets

12 Comments

June 9, 2010

Eat My Blog Summer 2010 Charity Bake Sale Plus 3 Recipes

Cathy Dahn of Eat My Blog by Caroline on Crack

Cathy Danh of Eat My Blog.

Last year’s blogger charity bake sale, Eat My Blog, was such a huge success that it just makes sense to make it a biannual thing. Not only is it for a good cause, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, but I can only go so long without such yummy fare. This summer’s bake sale will feature over 2,000 baked goods, priced between $1 to $4, from over 70 bakers which include some of your favorite bloggers like Lindsay from LAist, Jo of My Last Bite, and Evelina of Two Hungry Pandas as well as KCRW’s Good Food host Evan Kleiman, Drago Centro and Scoops Ice Cream. This must-do event will take place next Saturday, June 19 on Tender Greens West Hollywood‘s outdoor patio.

There are SO many goodies to look forward to but I have to say that of the many making their brief appearance on the table (as I’m sure all will quickly sell out) my instant faves are Eating LA‘s chocolate Guinness cupcakes with maple syrup frosting, Domestic Divas‘ bacon brownies with bourbon caramel sauce and the Ube cupcakes of Let Me Eat Cake blogger/Manila Machine food truck mastermind Nastassia Johnson. Fortunately, the blogger bakers were good enough to share their recipes so if they sell out at the event I can at least go home and try to make ‘em myself. Hee! Hit the jump for the recipes.

Hope you can make it! I’ll be volunteering at the sale so come by and say hi. I’ll be the girl stuffing her face.

EVENT: SATURDAY, JUNE 19 from 10am to 4PM

Tender Greens West Hollywood
8759 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood, California 90069 (map)
(310) 358-1919