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The Outdoor Grill Santa Maria BBQ - Culver City

12630 Washington Place
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 636-4745

The Outdoor Grill slings Santa Maria style BBQ, which means that the meat is cooked over an open fire of hot mesquite coals. The usual animals are represented: chicken, beef, pork. The sides are unremarkable. Like all Santa Maria joints, tri tip is on the menu. But it’s usually tough and dry. And the chicken, like almost all BBQ chicken ever, is dry and inedible. The ribs are worth trying if you like ‘em chewy. But since you’re in the neighborhood anyway, just head 2 miles down the road to Baby Blues BBQ where everything is better.

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Source: Flickr / lafoodie

LA Foodie Podcast 31, Hot Dog The Rapper

Hot Dog The Rapper joins the Food Dudes for the latest podcast. If you’re an audio type of person, then you’ll want to listen here (unless iTunes is your thing, or maybe Stitcher Smart Radio is your thing):

The entire video podcast, complete with DVD style navigation and menu (you can skip to any part of the show from any other part of the show—oh yes), is right here:

Hot Dog helps the guys prep their killer ‘staches for Movember before trying Salted Caramel Macarons from ButterSweet Minis in What Did We Put In Your Mouth? The guys try out some Lollibakes cake pops in Free Samples, and Brian brings a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon for everyone to try in Brian Brings Booze. Hot Dog and the guys then talk BBQ in LA.

Here are links to each video segment of the show on YouTube:

A few other links for your pleasure:

Special thanks to Luigi from www.essentialstyleformen.com, a good friend of L.A. Foodie, who helped enormously with shooting the video podcast. Thanks ESM!

Smoke City Market BBQ - Sherman Oaks, 30:SECONDmendations (ep 008)

Read our full blog post review of Smoke City Market here.

Here is LA Foodie’s review of Smoke City Market (Authentic Texas BBQ) in Sherman Oaks in less than 30 seconds. Ben dives into a pile of meat and likes what he finds. Brisket is served several ways here and is the star of the show.

What we recommend: Barbecued pastrami. It’s sublime. For other dishes, ask what is best that day. Get plenty of yummy side dishes. And don’t skip dessert!

Pros: Good (not great) barbecue near Los Angeles

Cons: Not everything here is worth writing home about

Source: youtu.be

10 More of Disneyland’s Best Foods

UPDATE: If you haven’t been to the Disneyland Resort in a while, it’s time to go back. Disney’s California Adventure, or “The Other Park,” as it was often groaned in the past, has completely transformed into a place that you want to visit. Indeed, as a frequent visitor myself, I can attest that the changes are almost all for the better—especially concerning the food. Before the renovation, you could find good food (as evidenced in the list below), but the selections were never center-stage. For that reason, the food always felt more like theme park concessions than the carefully curated menu items that you find across the giant compass at Disneyland. That has all changed, and in an upcoming post, we’ll snack our way through the new California Adventure. In the meantime, I wanted to resurface this old post.

This was first published on the old LA Foodie blog in October of 2009. In a way, we get to do a little bit of culinary time-traveling. Some of the foods on the list aren’t there anymore (noted where relevant). There are selections from both parks.

(originally published 10/14/2009)

As I confessed in my earlier post, Top 10 Best Foods at Disneyland, I spend more time at Disneyland than any man in his early 30s should probably ever admit. One of the main reasons for this is that the food is pretty exceptional—and it seems like I make a new culinary discovery every time I go back.

That said, it’s high time I post an addendum to the list I crafted last year. This time, I’ve broadened the scope to include food at Disney’s California Adventure, which sits directly across from Disneyland.

10) Soft-Serve Swirl Cone at Catch a Flave (California Adventure)

NOTE: Catch a Flave is still there, but they no longer serve these beautiful flavor-infused cones. It’s just run-of-the-mill soft serv now.

The Ace - Palm Springs Getaway

OK, OK, I know this blog is usually about food and what not, but you can find food among the hottest of the hottest bikini clad babes and fellas as well. It’s HOT as hell during the summer months, so it’s almost a necessity to grab a seat near the pool and stay in the water at all times and have the waitstaff bring over multiple cocktails and finger foods to keep you sane. Not to sound bougie, but you are definitely going to want to stay refreshed and fed. So you stay alive, not fried.

Smoke City Market - Sherman Oaks

Smoke City Market gets the 30:SECONDmendations treatment. Watch the entire review in 30 seconds or less!

Before you give up on finding great BBQ in Los Angeles, check out Smoke City Market in Sherman Oaks. This Texas-Style BBQ smokes it right, all over natural oak. With juicy fall-off-the-bone meat and sides that aim to please, this place is a winner in my mouth. Slow-smoked meat is the key to greatness and you can taste it in their moist melt-in-your-mouth brisket. My favorite is their Pastrami—it’s tender, full of flavor, and peppered to perfection. Wash it all down with a few beers and it’s pretty out-of-this-world.

Ford’s Filling Station

The Details:

9531 Culver Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA, 90232
Phone: (310) 202-1470
Mon-Wed: 11am-10pm
Thu-Sat: 11am-11pm
Sun: 11am-9pm
Happy Hour, Mon-Fri: 3pm-5:30pm bar and dining room, 5:30pm-7pm bar only
info@fordsfillingstation.net
Chef Ben Ford on Twitter

The Los Angeles Foodie Rating:

The Summary:

I visit Ford’s Filling Station regularly, and it rarely disappoints. Chef Ben Ford is almost always on-site, sometimes working the front of the house and sometimes sweating in the kitchen with the rest of his staff. This summer, you might even find him manning a gas grill on the front patio, slinging burgers and beers during one of the Culver City Summer Block Parties (PDF link). The whole pig feast is one of several special events that Ford’s will host for a group of people, and it is one of the things that makes this restaurant special. You are made to feel like royalty as each new dish is presented and explained. While the whole pig feast is very expensive, many hardcore food aficionados will find the price reasonable for what is provided.

The Place:

Chef Ben Ford is relatively reserved for a celebrity chef. Even though he has appeared on countless television programs and even battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, Ford always appears calm and cool. This attitude is reflected in his restaurant, which aims to make every patron feel relaxed, calm, and welcome. There is extensive use of natural wood and dark yet even lighting.

The Food:

Whenever possible, the chef used our pig in the preparation of the dishes. Of course, this simply wasn’t possible with foods like charcuterie. Our first course was a series of three flat breads, which are a Ford’s Filling Station standard.

Next was a lightly dressed, mixed greens salad adorned with various parts for the pigs head including its ears. Now I know why my dog goes crazy when I give her a pig ear. This stuff is delicious.

Then we were served a house-made pork sausage. This dish didn’t bowl me over as a whole, but it was quite good.

Yes, those are deep fried eyeballs. While I doubt I’ll set eyeballs out for my next barbecue, they are much better than they look. The only way to describe their taste and texture is to say, “They taste like eyeballs.” I recommend trying some the next time you get the chance.

The biggest laugh of the meal was when one of the waiters delivered a satchel of what looked to be a cross between surgical tools and the kinds of stainless steel instruments that the really evil guy in a movie produces right before he plans to torture the good guy. In other words, these cutting implements were terrifying, and they got everyone at the table excited for what came next.

This enormous platter of food includes the pig’s head, both legs, sheets of crispy fried skin, a mountain of shredded pork (you can’t see it very well from this angle, but there are more photos in the gallery below), and haricots verts and Brussels sprouts, both cooked in pork fat with bacon.

We were all feeling adventurous, and most of us had never tried brain. So we asked the chef to take the head back to the kitchen and extract the brain for us. It’s a strange flavor, almost tinny. And the texture is like a grainy fois gras. I’m not rushing to try it again soon, but it was an interesting dish.

And finally, we were served a maple-vanilla ice cream topped with hand-cut bacon strips. It was, as you can imagine, incredible.

Nearly every dish was great, and some were truly exceptional. There were eight of us dining on the whole pig, but we could have easily done four more and still had leftovers. Therefore, while the meal is very expensive, a larger crowd can make it more affordable. Anyway, this isn’t the kind of meal you want to skimp on. After all, the expression “whole hog” means to go all the way.

The Service:

Chef Ford didn’t prepare or present our meal, but that didn’t diminish the experience. Our chef was funny, helpful, attentive, and excited about every aspect of the meal. Chef Ford did eventually visit our table after we requested the pig’s skull be cracked so that we could sample the brain. Chef Ford chatted for a few minutes with our table about eating brain and other weird stuff.