Pulutan, A Filipino Happy Hour at Sari Sari Store (Downtown LA)

"Pulutan" refers to Filipino finger food that is typically eaten while drinking - basically Filipino bar snacks - and the name is perfect for Sari Sari Store's happy hour menu. Yep, Margarita Manzke's Filipino place inside Grand Central Market has a happy hour with $3 San Miguel beers on draft (San Miguel is a popular Filipino beer) and cheap (but delicious) bar snacks!

Here are what you can find on the pulutan menu:
BBQ pork belly skewers ($7)

The pork belly may be our favorite thing on the pulutan menu (it certainly was my mom's favorite). It was nicely caramelized yet so tender.
On the back there you can also see the Adobo Shishito Peppers, available for $5.

Pinoy BBQ ribs ($7)

The ribs are also a great one to order, and pretty generous for $7. The meat just falls off the bone and the BBQ sauce is nice and sweet.

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Steak Flight with a View at Castaway in Burbank

I figured for Valentine's weekend, it's good to post about this restaurant with a view, right? Castaway in Burbank has quite the romantic setting, especially around sunset time.

Castaway has been around for years but they had a major remodeling in 2018.

The cocktail menu was more interesting than what I had expected. I started with a Don Pedro Old Fashioned (Ilegal mezcal, spiced bourbon reduction, PX nectar - $15). It was a nice mezcal Old Fashioned, and look at that view!

Castaway has hired Perry Pollaci as executive chef .Chef Pollaci previously worked with the Patina Group and at The Royce at the Langham in Pasadena.

I'm behind on blogging, so some of the menu has changed since the time I went but at the time I had some heirloom tomato and burrata with watermelon, yuzu, white balsamic, black pepper, mache, basil, chia seeds  ($17)

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Crustacean Beverly Hills, Beyond the Garlic Noodles

Even though I've been in LA for a while and have even had the An family's food at AnQi in Costa Mesa and even the famous garlic crab at the original Thanh Long in San Francisco, I actually have not made it to Crustacean until recently. Sure, I've had the garlic noodles at food festivals, but that's not quite the same.

Luckily, I was recently invited for a tasting menu so I made my way there for the first time. It was the middle of the week but the Beverly Hills restaurant was hopping. It was quite crowded both with dinner guests and people drinking at the bar (after-work drink crowd, I presume). There was a live music performance going on, which takes place on Wednesdays from 4-7pm.

Our tasting menu for two started with these tuna cigars, with quite the eye catching presentation. A cigar box was presented to us and smoke wafted out upon opening.

The tuna cigars were made of feuille de brick, tuna, avocado silk, Vidalia onion, and tobiko caviar.


The smoky presentation continued on with the cocktail I ordered, the Hightea Penicillin. The Penicillin traditionally consisted of scotch, ginger, honey, and lemon juice and here it's topped off with black tea and lavender cloud.

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