Randy's Donuts

Yesterday was National Donut Day. Several friends mentioned this to me, and each time I said "You're going to Randy's Donuts, right?" I got equal shares of "heck yeah" and confused stares.

How could someone not know about Randy's Donuts?!

Randy's, my esteemed 24-hour drive-through donut shop in Inglewood near LAX, dates back to 1953, and it has a 32-foot donut on the roof. What else do I need to say?

The Chicago Salvation Army rolled out Donut Day in 1938 to raise funds for their programs. Randy's made a donation for each donut sold on National Donut Day to the Salvation Army. I celebrated with a Boston cream (Randy's version is shaped like a long john instead of the the typical round shape -- I think there are more custardy bites that way!) and a chocolate raised. And, hopefully, I've raised some awareness on the awesomeness that is Randy's.

Click here to go to their Web site.

Charlie's and Bob's at the Farmers Market

I just had blood work done at Cedars-Sinai, which means I haven't eaten yet today. My first thought is the Original Farmers Market for breakfast! I'll certainly find something good there! (Click here for my last post on the Farmers Market.)

This is a classic breakfast burrito from Charlie's Coffee Shop, with eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and cheese. And, a big glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice, with oranges probably from one of the vendors. YUMMY!!

Afterwards, I took several laps around the Farmers Market, and I stopped at Bob's Coffee and Doughnuts for a to-go treat. Bob's frequently shows up on "best of" lists, and I totally understand why. I went with a dinosaur glazed, and a Randy's-esque Boston cream long john! (Click here for the Randy's post.) Yummers!!

When is the last time you've been to the Farmers Market?!

Click here for Charlie's Coffee Shop's website.

Click here for Bob's Coffee and Doughnuts' website.

Christmas Story House in Cleveland!

I'm in Cleveland for a work conference, and there is no way I'm leaving without seeing the Christmas Story House!

I grew up watching A Christmas Story; heck, I even still have a VHS copy of the movie! It is truly a holiday tradition for me.

A Christmas Story House is actually made of three components: (1) the ultra-fabulous Gift Shop, complete with the pink bunny outfit - or you can just get the slippers, and every configuration of leg-lamp items, (2) the House itself, and (3) the Museum.

All tours start at the Gift Shop, then a lovely guide walks you across the street while sharing the Christmas Story story. How the house fell into disrepair, and there was a motorcycle repair shop in the living room space. How the owner/uber-fan Brian Jones bought the house sight unseen and began the process of returning it to it's movie glory. How Jack Nicholson was originally pegged to play the Old Man. The great stories just went on and on!!

And here it is! Can you see the leg lamp in the front window?! We also learned that only certain scenes were filmed in the house, due to space limitations. But, the Fragile box was delivered up those stairs and into the living room. The Christmas dinner scene with the dogs running through and destroying the turkey were filmed here on the first attempt.

These are my two favorite details:

The coolest thing is that you can actually wander - and wonder! - around the house, and pick up the replica wall phone, or Randy's bib, or the Orphan Annie decoder ring. Too cool!

Then there's the Museum where the real stuff is presented and protected. Here's Randy's snowsuit. We learned it was stuffed with upholstery foam, so Randy really couldn't put down his arms. Plan to stroll through rooms with the chalkboard from the A+++++ scene, and see one of the Red Ryder guns actually used on film. Truly an awesome experience for me!

Who wants to roadtrip to Cleveland?! I understand there's also a music museum of some esteem we can also pop into!

Click here for A Christmas Story House's website.

Proud Bird

Proud Bird is closing in November! Argh, this means one of LA's iconic aviation-themed restaurants will be no more. (See my Encounter post from last February for another example.)

Located off one of the two landing runways at LAX since 1967, the Proud Bird is been home to a dozen or so vintage/historic planes. For instance, the orange plane to the left is a Bell X-1, which was the first to break the sound barrier. How cool is that?! That means you can see classic planes and modern-day planes simultaneously.

Proud Bird also serves up some tasty chow, although you don't have to eat to watch the planes. This is the Ahi Tuna Tower appetizer: fresh ahi with chili, soy, radish, avocado, mango, ginger. tobiko caviar and wasabi creme fraiche. WOW!!

Definitely go before they close! I can't explain it, but I could've watched those planes land for hours. If it wasn't for Randy's Donuts calling me, I'd probably still be there.

Click here for Proud Bird's Web site.

The Donut Hole

The westside may have Randy's Donuts; I wrote about them back in June. But, the San Gabriel Valley has The Donut Hole, another iconic stop on my search for LA's donut hole-y grail.

The Donut Hole kicks the giant donut theme up a notch, as you get to drive through this one! Really, you drive in and on the right hand side the baking is going on, and on the left hand side you coast past racks of fresh donuts on the way to the decision window to place your order.

This big donut says "It's the Quality," but we all know it's the quality of kitsch in this pursuit. Do you know of other enormous donuts? I'd love to hear about them!

They do not have a Web site. Street address is 15300 Amar Road in La Puente, CA 91744, and phone is (626) 968-2912.

Indiana 2013: Amazing Glaze Donuts

It's National Donut Day again! Remember my post from Randy's Donut in 2009? Take a looksie for some background on why we're celebrating donuts today. As if we need a reason...

This year, I'm in Indiana for Relay for Life with my family, and I'm carbloading for tonight's laps around the New Albany High School. Of all the donut options, Amazing Glaze Donuts was my natural choice. I had a terrific turtle long john and a chocolate-drizzled glazed, plus a song in my heart. DELISH!

Click here to go to Amazing Glaze's Web site.

Glazed Donut Bistro

I wrangled a friend to join me for a donut tasting at Glazed Donut Bistro, subtitled as Donuts for Grownups, on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Remember my SK's Donuts & Croissants post with the joke about the maple bacon donut bracket? Well, here ya go!

So here you see the donut flight: peanut butter and jelly and maple bacon upfront, with Boston cream and s'mores in back.

My clear winner was the PB&J! The strawberry jam inside was worth the price of admission. Next would be the unique s'more with crack-worthy marshmallow filling. DELISH!! The Boston cream was tasty, but my heart (attack) will stay with Randy's long john version. And, I'm keeping the maple bacon nod with SK's, as I actually liked their donut base more. Rest assured, I'm open to further testing.

Glazed Donut Bistro also has a tempting savory menu, with fried chicken beignet and a pulled pork in a brioche donut. That will have to be a new bracket!

Click here for Glazed Donut Bistro's Web site.

Five Meals in Portland

I got a chance to visit Portland with my Milwaukee bestie. I'd never been, and it had been 10 or so years since she was there. After lots of research on both our parts, we finally realized that we only had five meals, plus snacks, in the short weekend trip. Let's get the weirdness going, Portland!!

We decided that this would be a tasting tour of Portland, meaning that we'd be trying lots of different dishes and finishing very few of them. Meal #1 on Saturday was Pine State Biscuits, and here you see the bounty: biscuits and sausage gravy, local apple cider and Hash Ups (hash browns with country ham, grilled onions, mushrooms and cheese) on top, and blueberry cornmeal pancakes and the Chatfield biscuit sandwich (with fried chicken breast, bacon and cheese) in the bottom picture! Wow! 

We chose the Alberta Arts District location, so we were able to shop and walk it off afterward. We both scored on vintage-inspired dresses with cute obi belts at Amelia. Shout out to Amelia staffer who recommended that we eat at the delicious Luc Lac for dinner, but then I'd be getting ahead of myself. During the stroll, we got to experience some of the famous Portland rain, popped into lots of great shops, and smelled lots of irises planted along the street. During this grand time, the lunch bell rang.

Actually, it was my phone, and my South Pas friends who moved to Portland almost a year ago called to say they were waiting it out at the Grilled Cheese Grill a few blocks away. Hello, is the Cheesus available? That's two grilled cheese sandwiches surrounding a 1/3 pound burger, in case you couldn't tell from the picture, for meal #2. And it was fantastic! Their schtick is childhood favorite foods, and you can eat it on a converted school bus. I only finished half of my Cheesus, because I knew there was much more food to come. We just had to backtrack a few blocks to get it.

This is a honey lavender ice cream in a freshly-baked waffle cone from Salt & Straw. Snack #1 was made of 17% butterfat (!!) and local ingredients to form an out-of-this-world taste sensation. Not sure about honey lavender? My two back-up sampled flavors were pear and bleu cheese, and strawberry balsamic. Incredible!! Note to my LA peeps: I see that they are opening a shop on Larchmont in August. I'll hold you a spot in line!!

After a short respite back at the hotel, it was time for meal #3 at the Amelia-staffer recommended Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen. 

We went all out! Here you see Garlic String Beans, Chicken Peanut Curry Stir Fry, and Coconut Prawns in the back, then Nem Nuong Pork Sausage Vermicelli in the middle, and Luc Lac Beef and Chicken Jade Noodles on the bottom. I didn't do the prawns, but everything else was spicy and tasty! And as if that wasn't enough food for the day, there was still a Portland tradition that we absolutely had to try.

Voodoo Doughnuts was a must stop! Here you see my selections: the Voodoo with raspberry filling in the body for a blood-like bite, maple bacon that is challenging the bracket held by SK's, and the Portland Cream with Bavarian instead of Boston cream, so Randy's Long John’s version is safe in that bracket. Wow! We lucked out, and the wait was only 30 minutes. Also in the pink box, we had the Memphis Mafia (think peanut butter, chocolate and banana), Butterfinger, Mexican Hot Chocolate and apple fritter. Voodoo on!! Sugar and fat crashes end a full day of eating. One more to go before heading back to LA.

Morning of day two, and I'm feeling a sugar hangover. I can only consider eating is fruit, yogurt and banana from Starbucks; I'm assuming the missed meal #4 will be made up later! We decide to walk it off and stroll through Chinatown to see this hilarious neon sign

before heading to the Portland Saturday Market. Yes, I know it's Sunday, and I don't know why they keep that name.

Here I scored on some fun magnets and a uber-soft shrug/shoulder sweater that will be great for an airplane ride, before heading to Powell's City of Books to be overwhelmed by the full city block of books, and finally Lardo for meal #5.

These are the dirty fries, with pork scraps, marinated peppers, fried herbs and parmesan. I know!! My sandwich was prosciutto, figs and gorgonzola on a baguette. I KNOW!! Lardo was the theme for the trip, and it was a fantastic last call before hitting the road!!

Thanks, Portland, for an incredible getaway! I look forward to getting weird with you again!!