Coco Cafe: Coconut Water and Coffee? Yes!

Two hyped-up beverages meet in this carton package: Coffee and Coconut water!
It's true, Coco Cafe is a combination of coconut water - believed to be a source of plenty electrolytes and subsequently good for hydration (and hangovers) - and cafe latte which, for its virtues and despite its vices most of us cannot live without. As their packaging says: "Hydrate. Caffeinate."

I first saw this at a gym in Venice and was intrigued but didn't make the jump. Then, coincidentally, they sent me a case to review. OK, on to the drink. As you can see, it looks pretty much like a Starbucks bottled frappuccino.

Does it taste weird, you ask? Actually, no! I found that it tastes predominantly like cafe latte (that's not too sweet). The taste of coconut water subtly comes out at the end. I liked the coconut water aftertaste, but if you're still worried about the combo, don't. It's just like a cafe latte, but it's better for you and it's made using fair trade coffee.

Coco Cafe is now available at the SoCal Whole Foods markets and Vicente Foods, among others (and apparently certain gyms). You can also buy it online.

Tsujita LA: Artisan Noodles and Izakaya

This small, new restaurant on Sawtelle got a false start before finally making big waves in the LA food scene. While the sign clearly says "Tsujita LA: Artisan Noodles", they initially did not have noodles - they apparently were still working on perfecting that part. Now, they only serve their noodles (ramen and tsukemen) for lunch, and at dinner service it turns into an izakaya. Even so, almost immediately after, the twitterverse was filled with talks of the tsukemen.

At Tsujita, the tsukemen, which means "dipping noodles", is a bowl of slippery, chewy noodles and a bowl of thick, rich broth made by simmering bonito, sardines, pork bones, chicken bones, and vegetables for 12 hours. The fishy bonito flavors predominate and the richness can stick to your ribs - both of which make this tsukemen unforgettable.

Pictured is the Ajitama Tsukemen which is served with a boiled egg and costs $10.95, or $13.95 with chashu.

Originally the sign instructs you to eat 1/3 of the noodles with the broth, then mix in shichimi and eat another 1/3, and lastly to squeeze lime into it and mix it again (traditionally it is served with sudachi, but I guess you can't get that in LA). For some reason, they had taped off the 2nd instruction for the shichimi.

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No More Roxolana for Me (yet again!)

***UPDATE: The owner of Roxolana emailed to apologize and said that my photo was set to be used on Yelp by mistake, and that he had uploaded it before the first incident. ***

Some of you may be familiar with the incident where Ukrainian restaurant, Roxolana, in Pasadena used my photo without permission or credit for their Groupon deal a while back. I asked Groupon to take the photo down, and emailed the owner which resulted in a ridiculous email exchange (documented below).

Well, I thought that was that. But NO! This morning a fellow blogger told me that she saw my photo used by Roxolana yet again, this time for their Yelp deal! Here's a screen capture of the deal page:

This was my photo on flickr, uploaded in July 2011

The photo on Yelp was apparently uploaded by an "Alex R." who has no review and 3 uploaded photos, all of which are of Roxolana. I mean, seriously, once was annoying enough, but to do it AGAIN??

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