I make no excuses for why I haven’t blogged lately. I’ll tell you exactly what I’ve been doing -

Eating, and eating some more, thanks to Chowhound and Yelp.

I’ll tell you what, those two sites don’t mess around. The peeps really know their grub…foodies after my own heart!

I have yet to read a restaurant recommendation on either site and be disappointed.
I don’t know how the members manage to do it, but they always seem to hit the nail on the head when it comes to thumbing up or down an eatery.

Everyone on Chowhound in L.A. was raving about the garlic green beans at
Fortune Inn, a local Chinese restaurant in the Valley.

I have already expressed on this blog my love of most Asian cuisines (Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc.) but NEVER Chinese food. I still hate it. I don’t care if it’s Cantonese or any -ese, it’s all blech to me!

Any cuisine that is so heavy-handed with cornstarch that it makes sauces congeal on my place gets NO love from mama.

BUT - since everyone on Chowhound made a big to-do about those daggone green beans, there was no way I was going to miss what might be love. I mean, who am I to treat any cuisine like a red-headed, buck-toothed stepchild?

Bingo! The green beans really are all that! They’re FRESH - as in not frozen, not canned, not squishy, not grey. Crisp, snap-happy green beans that would make
The Jolly Green Giant blush! Super-perfecto, shameless garlic lust.

Furthermore, the staff at Fortune Inn are all polite and patient. The guy on the phone didn’t sigh or suck his teeth when I vacillated between Moo Shu Chicken and the
Walnut Shrimp, only to then decide on Pan-Fried Noodles.

My request for the white chocolate-dipped fortune cookies wasn’t accommodated (they only had dark chocolate), but after braving those crazy L.A. fires recently, I’m grateful to be alive to make such a big stink over such minutiae.

Yes, kvetching about chocolate-dipped fortune cookies is akin to (true story) a former rockstar demanding that his hotel penthouse suite be decorated in black, equipped with an oxygen bar run by “three sexy ladies.” And then has the gall to threaten to sue his own fans. Who does that?! Sheesh. Litigious much?

But I digress.

The other rec I’ve taken and appreciated was to try the various croissants at Porto’s - a local Cuban deli and bakery. Oh my word. Those things are so damn flaky and buttery.
I love me some Porto’s, I’m telling you. Their Cuban sandwiches and guava pastries will have you running to confession on Sunday or whenever you Catholics do it.

Other than that, we’ve just been loungin’. We had a good time at SideBar, and I finally had live witnesses to my strange phenomenon of finding playing cards on the ground in random places outside that always foretell my near future. I picked up an Ace of Diamonds on Friday night. I’m such a mystical bird.

So, life’s been good to me.

I love my Yahweh/Yahshua, my family, my friends, my food, myself, my life, my love and my everything. The only thing that’s missing is a cat. But that’s another story.

If anyone else shares in my playing card oddity, hit me up. I’d like to know I’m not alone. It’s cool, but freaky.