C+M Coffee and Milk, Now Open in Westwood

Despite being home to Bruins, Westwood doesn't really have a lot of good coffee options, but now Patina Group has brought their C+M Coffee and Milk concept. The new cafe is located at Westwood Gateway, at the corner of Sepulveda and Santa Monica.

C+M brews Intelligentsia coffee. On a hot day, you might want to try their affogato which uses their housemade milk sorbet - slightly lighter than ice cream, drizzled with caramel and chocolate syrup. There are also shakes and "milkwiches", an ice cream sandwich made with their vanilla milk sorbet.

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Chowzter Tastiest Fast Feast Global Awards in London

Last week I had the good fortune to be in London for Chowzter's 2nd Tastiest Fast Feasts global awards. I'm working with them on the Los Angeles "fast feasts" picks which you can check out here. My LA pick, #19 sandwich from Langer's, won their North American award last year.

Focusing on the local and authentic, unlike Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurant List, Chowzter's picks are much more affordable and approachable - doner, pad thai, and Paseo's caribbean roast sandwich in Seattle were among the winners. The winner for Tastiest Fast Feast in Asia is a stuffed lechon in Manila. The lechon is Philippine's national dish but at this particular restaurant you can get it stuffed with truffles! Truffle-stuffed lechon! I want, so bad ...

The basic criteria is that it can't be from a fine dining restaurant, nor chains. Instead, we try to find hole in the wall restaurants, food trucks, shacks, and street stalls. Some mid-range restaurants are allowed, as long as they're just that good!

I also want this roast goose from Hong Kong ...

Seeing all the winning dishes really stirred up some wanderlust.

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All You Need is Steak Frites at L'Assiette

When I first heard about L'Assiette, I wondered if the restaurant will succeed at serving only one thing. Yes, L'Assiette only has one item on the menu: steak frites. When you sit down, the only menu they give you is the wine list. They ask you what temperature you'd like your steak to be and jot it down on the paper table cover.

It isn't just the steak frites, though, but the $25 meal comes with a choice of either salad or an aromatic sorrel soup that I loved.

Then comes the steak frites: slices of very tender steak, hot fries, with their homemade secret-recipe sauce.

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