Red Hot Kitchen

Today was one of my coworkers' birthdays, and on days such as these we all usually order out. My coworker wanted to order from Red Hot Kitchen, an Asian-Mexican fusion restaurant nearby. She recommended the kalbi (Korean barbecued short ribs) chimichanga (Mexican fried burrito).

First off, holy crap! That's a lot of food! Each of those four pieces pictured were absolutely massive. I'm a big guy, and I can eat a lot, but I couldn't finish this chimichanga. I managed to eat three of the sections, and even then I overate. So now we know it's generous, but what did it taste like?

If you've had kalbi (or read my earlier parenthetical), then you know it's barbequed short ribs marinated in a sweet soy-sauce base. Short ribs have a little bit of fatty goodness, and on which Red Hot Kitchen didn't skimp. There was also white rice which was also lightly drenched with the marinade, kimchi, and some sweet refried bean mixture. This was topped with cheese, spicy mayonnaise, and hot sauce. That might seem like a strange combination, but it all worked well together. Think of it like fried mushu pork, which is similarly sweet and also wrapped with veggies inside. While it was sweet, it wasn't dessert-sweet, more like Korean barbecue sweet. And it was also decently spicy, enough so that people who have trouble with spicy foods should probably ask for the spicy mayonnaise and hot sauce on the side. It was strange how well the spicy mayo worked with everything, and how the sweetness didn't clash with the cheese.

If there was one thing I could complain about, the chimichanga was a heart-stopper. I could feel my arteries clogging and my heart working harder to keep me alive. Of course I didn't have to eat that third piece.

If the kalbi chimichanga was any indication, Red Hot Kitchen is definitely worth revisiting as their menu has plenty more offerings, all of which sound enticing. Perhaps next time I'll try their Korean BBQ burger with sweet potato fries, or their Teriyaki Torta.

Red Hot Kitchen
4625 Valley Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90032
(323) 222-6900

Some other notes about Red Hot Kitchen:
- 1 out of 7 on my mess-o-meter. Use a fork.
- 7 out of 10 on my spice-o-meter. It's pretty spicy.
- Not only was the food good, not only was the portion generous, but it's incredibly cheap. The chimichanga will only set you back about $6. You're practically robbing the place!

Celebrity Sightings - Mark Pender

Keeping on the topic of Conan this week, I'll recount the time I met Mark "Loveman" Pender from the Basic Cable Band (formerly the Max Weinberg Seven). Mark Pender is the bald guy with glasses that plays the trumpet, and is often included in bits where he overzealously gets into singing songs.

I met him at New York Comic-Con three years ago shortly after NBC had announced that Conan was taking over the Tonight Show. He was there for the day with his young daughter. He stopped by our booth so both Queen Poo and I mentioned how we were big fans of the show. Even if we hadn't know who he was, he was also wearing a Late Night with Conan O'Brien jacket for staff only. We chatted with him for a bit and asked whether or not he'd be moving to Los Angeles (at the time it wasn't clear whether Conan was going to take the Max Weinberg Seven with him). While he loved New York, he didn't love the harsh winters and said he looked forward to warm Southern California.

He was very friendly and cordial and we had a nice conversation. He mentioned his daughter was a fan of manga, so we gave her a copy of one of our books.

I'm glad he's back with the band on "Conan," as his presence would have been greatly missed. No one can hold a note like he can on the trumpet during the pre-show, except maybe La Bamba.

Taste Chicago

After watching Conan, Jokekilla and I were pretty hungry, so he took me to Taste Chicago, a restaurant specializing in Chicago-style cuisine. They serve deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago dogs, pasta, and ribs. It's a cozy place with perhaps a couple dozen tables and some flat screen TVs so that you can watch whatever game is playing.

The menu was a little bit intimidating because of the numerous options, all of which sounded delicious. Not being able to decide between an Italian beef or sausage sandwich, I luckily didn't have to and got the beef & sausage combo. It was huge! It came with a sizable sausage topped with even more thinly sliced roast beef, topped with sweet peppers and au jus. I was tempted to pick it up and eat it, but it was safer using a fork and knife. It really hit the spot and was delicious to boot. My only complaint was that I didn't have a big enough mouth to get a bit of the bread, beef, sausage, and the pepper in each bite.

On the side I got smothered wedges, potato wedges covered in buttery garlic sauce. It was pretty killer, with a generous amount of butter and garlic. There was more than enough leftover to serve as a dip for other things.

After a night of laughs, a hearty meal was enough to knock me out. Next time I'm obligated to try the deep dish pizza, since the actual Chicago is a little out of the way.

Some other interesting notes about Taste Chicago:
- 7 out of 7 on my mess-o-meter if you try to pick up the sandwich and eat it, otherwise it's a 1 out of 7 with a fork and knife. For some reason I still needed a napkin.
- The restaurant is owned by actor Joe Mantegna's wife.

Taste Chicago
603 N. Hollywood Way
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 563-2800

Welcome Back Coco!

Nearly a year ago to the day, I found myself standing in line to see a tall, gangly redhead make a fool of himself, and boy was I excited. Conan is back on television where he belongs, and because my friend the Jokekilla was able to procure tickets, I was lucky enough to be there for his second show on TBS. I was so excited to see his new show that I watched the first episode, "Baa Baa Blackmail," on the east coast feed (which airs three hours earlier than the west coast feed), plus I also DVR'd it. I wasn't expecting the show to be totally different from his last show, or even the show he had before that, and I was glad to see a lot of familiar faces in front of and behind the cameras.

Conan O'Brien had been on television pretty much uninterrupted for seventeen straight years, which constitutes the majority of my life, so to have him gone from the airwaves for the past few months seemed quite strange. But now he's back, albeit off network television, and I can rest easier at night knowing that he's out there on the TV entertaining all those insomniacs and stoners.

As for the show I saw in person, the guests were Tom Hanks, Jack McBrayer, and musical guest Soundgarden. Tom Hanks has always been a good friend of the show, and I fondly remember Conan sharing screentime with him in one of the few "SNL" sketches where he appeared on camera, the classic "Five-Timers Club." Jack McBrayer was also very timely as I had just finished watching the first four seasons of "30 Rock" on Netflix. We even got a bonus performance by Soundgarden which will appear on Team Coco's website. Unfortunately that resulted in us missing the "End of the Show Song" which Conan usually sings at the end just after television feed cuts out. Oh well. We did get to see him cut a promo in which he berated writers off camera for incorrectly using "historical" instead of "historic," which was pretty funny.

So after what seemed like a long wait, Conan has triumphantly returned to television where hopefully he will remain for many years to come. All is right with the world.

Some other interesting notes about "Conan":
-The set moves back and forth to allow more room for the monologue.
-The moon really does move a lot, and it's mesmerizing. Although I don't understand why it moves.
-Andy still looks huge in person, while Conan has slimmed down quite a bit.
-The set looks really good, although I'm not crazy about the Basic Cable Band's podiums.