Comfort Food- Roscoes Version

Last night (4/23) me and the crew went to one of our favorite eating spots in LA, the infamous Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles. There are various spots around the greater LA area, but we decided to hit the "gangsta stop", Pico & La Brea. We like to refer to this location as the original, as it is both famous, and infamous, and also, it was the first Roscoe's I had ever eaten at. I can still remember hearing about the pairing of fried chicken and waffles, and thinking, "That has to be the MOST odd ball thing ever!" Having the sweet tooth that I have, sweet and salty to me just didn't mix at the time. (My palate has since become more sophisticated) It was a good time with good friends, and I left thinking that was the best experience ever! I can still remember how that butter melted into my two plate sized cinnamon accented waffles as that warm, thick syrup poured so evenly over every square. It was here that I had my first taste of Red Rooster Louisiana style hot sauce, and experienced how it's perfect blend of spice and flavor perfectly mated with that golden, crispy fried chicken. I learned to tap on a coat of Red Rooster, and let it "marinade" for a minute before I indulged in it to give it a little more time to work through and settle on the skin and meat. It creates a flavor explosion with every bite!
I did quite recently, discover a sort of "repressed" comfort food love of mine. The very basic fried chicken, rice, and gravy. This was a dish that I remember from my very young days at Grandma Green's house. After I had reached a certain age, i didn't go to this grandmother's house that often, but I do remember those times after Sunday morning service when my aunt would take me over, and we would sit down to this wonderful meal. I remember the feeling of love as my cousins and I would sit down to eat. The smells of the kitchen, and, if it was the right time of year, the smell of orange blossoms from the trees in the backyard. I would bite into the crispy golden fried chicken, and scoop a fork full of the white rice and light brown gravy into my mouth, making sure to get a little onion in with each scoop, and let the flavors mingle on my tongue while I listened to the family talk about various subjects. We always had Kool-Aid poured in glasses with crescent shaped ice cubes to wash it all down. It's funny, but for the longest time, I thought Black Cherry was the only flavor of Kool-Aid, because that's all we ever drank at Grandma Green's.
When I finally looked past the #2 Dark on the Roscoe's menu, and discovered they had Chicken rice & gravy, I just had to try it. I'll have to say, it's nothing fancy, but as far as simple comfort food goes, it more than qualifies. From the first bite, I was taken back to Grandma Green's kitchen, and all the love that was present during those dinners. The only thing missing was the black cherry Kool-Aid in a glass of crescent shaped ice cubes, but substituting, was Roscoe's Eclipse, a mix of orange juice, lemonade, and fruit punch, so all was still well. I, or maybe more aptly my inner fat man, has more recently added a Roscoe's world famous waffle to the chicken and rice plate. It normally comes with a biscuit, which is good, but the waffle makes it that much better! Now I can eat one of my favorite comfort meals with one of my favorite waffles and double my enjoyment at "Scoe's".

Website Workin

So this is just a progress report on the development of my website.

I am currently designing my own personal site, and what I'm finding to be most difficult at this juncture is not keep changing my mind on how i want it to look. So far my color palate has been confirmed, and the general layout came to me in a vision a couple of weeks ago, as I sat in my Flash for web design class.
Doing research of other cool websites keeps me brimming with ideas, even though those ideas keep me tweaking my designs more!
The real issue for me though is "To Flash or not to Flash" Flash Websites are the most eye catching websites around, and for obvious reasons. I mean, if one is presented with a static website and a Flash based website, with all of its motion, and changes, the natural draw will be for the Flash site. As humans we pick up motion and follow it. Call it primal response, call it genetic make up, whatever, we still do it. So to work in Flash would seem to be an easy answer, and seeing how I am skilled in it, it would be no problem to do, however, there is one big reason that keeps me close to Dreamweaver as my base. Not everyone can see Flash websites! It seems as though in this time of super computer processors that can fit on your lap, high speed Internet connections, monitors that display millions of colors (even a new one that reportedly has added yellow in the RGB color scale!) and ultra high end graphics, that everyone would be able to see a Flash website, but the sad fact is that, while this may all be true, there are those who cannot see them.  If you doubt my word, just try and view a flash website on an iPhone, or iPod touch. Working with an old Internet browser? No Flash viewing for you my friend.
My solution, therefore is to base mine in Dreamweaver, and sprinkle it with Flash. It's gonna be extra work, but should pay off in the end. In the meantime, my other issue is that since I am a big illustrator, I want the site to be heavy with my illustrations. As i transform more into a perfectionist each day, I find myself creating, changing, deleting, and recreating images to get the pest possible feel for the look I'm trying to pull off. Fun stuff, but very time consuming.
Anyhow enjoy the "sneak peeks" of my artwork, and I'll keep crackin on the site...Just as soon as I eat. My Inner Fat Man is talkin to me!

The Original Texas BBQ King

So it was a great Monday morning that I struck out with my bro Dave in search of something he saw on a TV show. It all started with a text message that asked if I had heard of an eatery in LA called The Original Texas Barbecue King. Being the foodie that I am, he was surprised that I had not yet made the journey there, but I decided to remedy that, so off we went in search of The BBQ King's famous 1lb burger.
As we rolled we talked the usual shop, family, friends, and of course food, and he described to me the technique that was used to cook this great burger. Each one is prepared fresh by hand, and cooked on the second rack of the grill under the ribs and such to absorb a little extra flavor as it cooks. The thought of it was driving me insane, and had I not been recovering from my skateboard injuries (blog for another time), I would have got out and pushed Dave's truck so we could get there faster!
As we exited the freeway on that overcast morn, we kept our eyes peeled for the spot. We soon pulled up in front of the kings "castle" nestled between a shoe repair store and ironically, a place that sold barbecue grills. Had we not been paying attention, we would have passed right by it!

As we got out and walked up, the place looked a bit dark which gave us a bit of a pause, but the siren call of the burger urged us forward. As we entered the place, it looked as though we were the first customers of the day. The big screen TV called out the day's news as we took a loong look at the menu.
We eventually decided on getting two combos, the 1lb burger combo, and a bbq tri tip sandwich combo that we were going to split. Each combo came with a choice of side and a soda. Dave got cornbread, and I got the mac n cheese. We were advised that the order was going to take some extra time due to the burger being freshly handmade, which neither of us had a problem with, and we took a seat in the sparse dining area across from a mural the let each visitor know that "The BBQ King Loves America."

The News ended, then the daytime soaps began, and sensing this would kill our appetite, we were handed the TV remote, and we promptly tuned in to ESPN sports center, and caught up with the weekend's events.
Before we knew it, we had two gorgeous sandwiches placed in front of us. Our eyes bugged out at the sight of that 1lb beast! The huge patty came adorned with iceberg lettuce, tomato, yellow onion, dill pickle chips, and two slices of American cheese and was dressed with mayo and a spot of yellow mustard. Wanting to just taste the burger as it was served in it's pure goodness, I assembled it , cut it in half, and me and Dave made the switch. On first bite, I was met with juicy and tender beef, that had a hint of the ribs it was cooking under. It was then that I noticed the combination of all the other "accessories", and how they all danced so deliciously together in my mouth.


Dave had started on the tri tip, and suggested that I take a bite. The tri tip came slathered in the King's special bbq sauce that tasted like it was a molasses based, sweet and smoky complete with tiny onion slivers. The meat itself was tender for the most part, and flavorful.
Although I did admire what I saw, my mind was already racing with ideas on how to personalize it. First, since I'm not a fan of it, I'd replace the American cheese slices with colby jack slices, or at the very least, cheddar. The yellow onions, I'd replace with red. Sauce wise, there are so many options. The addition of ketchup, spicy brown mustard, a good teriyaki, or even the King's very own sauce that was on the tri tip can enhance and transform this wonderful creation.
On the downside for me was the macaroni and cheese. It had the right color, a nice yellow orange. The right look, elbow macaroni with a layer of baked cheese, but the taste was off some how. It seemed kind of powdery, and not totally fresh. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the mac n cheese I've had before (Ronic and Sadie), but this time, I think not. It was just a case of #MacNCheeseFail.

All in all, this was a good trip. It has been a
couple of weeks since we were there, but I can still taste that juicy one pound goodness! There is a lot on the menu still to try, so Texas BBQ King, I WILL be back!