McMafiosa

Self explanatory. This artist is a genius. Title pic below links to the artist's personal blog
And if that last one stumps you, it's said that it's supposed to be representative of Sonic Drive-In. Interesting.

Where the Wild (and Foul-Mouthed) Things Are

You knew someone was gonna do this eventually. WTWTA/Sopranos mash-up:

LOL or Facepalm?

Gastronomy Spotlight: Won's Coffee Shop - Van Nuys, CA

As you regular viewers know, I've posted numerous "food porn" pics. Now, it's time for me to actually feature some of the places I've just posted exterior shots of previously.

This premiere spotlight is on my favorite local "hole-in-the-wall", Won's. Coffee shop?!? Chinese?!? Yes, they can be had hand in hand. I'm not too sure how "authentic" every last Chinese dish is, but it is definitely no abomination. The American fare is pretty standard, but why come here for that? I like to think it's there to appease the traditionalists who are not that open to variety but are too lazy/unadventurous/set in their ways to go elsewhere. The Chinese fare is where it's at.

Won's has been serving up goodness to normal citizens, cops, judges, and city officials (the Van Nuys Courthouse is just down the street) alike since at least the early '70s. The structure itself dates back to the early '50s, and is, even today, a prototypical coffee shop design; counter, booths and all. I've heard stories of my Lolo and his Pacific Bell coworkers patronizing this place almost daily when he first emigrated here to California.

Pops just got the hankering after getting home yesterday morning, so off we went. And since we were feeling extra hungry, we ordered our appetizer ahead so that it'd be ready by the time we got there. Chicken wings in Won's Garlic sauce.

Notice all the fried garlic bits on top of the already garlicky wings. Awesome, but you ain't kissing anyone after grubbin' on these.

My plate - Combo #6 - Pork fried rice, chicken egg rolls, & fried shrimp

My fadre's (slanguage!) selection - Combo #1 - Pork chop suey, fried rice, & fried shrimp
Here he is doing work (Notice the pristine vintage Starter Kings jacket!)

I won't post pics of the aftermath, mainly because there was simply too much food, and we ended up each needing to-go containers. Each combo plate could easily feed two people!

However, I will post a somewhat related picture.It's not playing with your food when it's abstract art. I guess, haha.

Culinary Abominations

These two aren't anything like the Bacon Explosion or any of that other schlock you see out there, but creativity (or a lack thereof) and hunger spawned these things, and being the broke college grad that I am...

The LäWhy-Did-I-Eat-That?, a CPK Sicilian pizza topped with White Castle Slyders (not frozen, flown in from Indianapolis). A guaranteed case of the sharts, but hey, it's awesome if your drunk/faded/lazy/strapped for time/any combination of the former.

This one, I didn't necessarily create, but found while perusing the "impulse section" near the register at Trader Joe's










Notice that it's a candy bar of sorts, with Potato chips in it. POTATO CHIPS. It does taste good, but why not try to market the whole savory/sweet/salty combination in something a little healthier? (P.S. Loooooooove you.)

Norwegian Wu'd

Mash-ups are nothing new, but I just had to DL this one once I saw the cover. I stumbled upon a link to this album that didn't work, so I had to hunt around a bit and found an article on The NY Times about it:

Even among music fans whose tastes are omnivorous enough to include the Beatles and the Wu-Tang Clan, most people would not necessarily want to listen to both bands at the same time. Most people are not Tom Caruana, a 28-year-old music teacher and producer from Brighton, England, who spent about two months stitching together Beatles and Wu-Tang samples to create “Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers,” a mashup album that unites the Fab Four and the fearsome hip-hop collective.

Since he posted it on the Internet earlier this month, Mr. Caruana said that “Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers” has been downloaded more than 27,000 times from his Web site, teasearecords.net. The project has also received widespread attention in publications from The Fader to GQ, and even got a shout-out from the Wu-Tang rapper Raekwon, who described it as “ill” on his Twitter account. Mr. Caruana’s work has also drawn numerous comparisons to “The Grey Album,” the Beatles/Jay-Z mashup created by Danger Mouse that drew disapproving attention from the Beatles’ record label, EMI.

Caruana's original download point has since expired, but you can safely DL it here on zSHARE.

Unending Downpour

and I ain't go no umbrella (insert obligatory "ella-ella-ey-ey-ey")