From Orlando...

Police were investigating a Taco Bell robbery that happened Wednesday night and quickly realized that they were dealing with a crime spree.

When officers arrived they learned the Burger King next door had also been robbed by the same group.

What can't this guy do? The producer, director, writer, composer, editor of Sin City, Desperado, and Planet Terror has made two cooking shorts, produced as extras for his DVDs.

There are only two of these "Ten Minute Cooking School" segments in existence, at least on YouTube. On the first -- created in 2004 -- he makes puerco pibil, the dish that Johnny Depp's character lusts after in Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

Due the positive reaction this first one elicited, he did a second a little later where cooks something simpler: breakfast tacos. Except he does his own flour tortillas...from scratch.

Being that he is a filmmaker, the shorts are often shot with a moving camera, and edited like an action movie. You'll wish all cooking shows are done this way.

And in both he repeats his catchy mantra: "Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to fuck".

Please to enjoy, Chef Robert Rodriguez.

Here's somewhat encouraging news in discouraging times. Although "at least eight people were laid off this year from the company's office in Woodland Hills", according to an article in the LA Times, about a dozen Daily Grill executives -- whose annual salaries range from $100,000 to $350,000 -- are going to take a 10% pay cut, effective immediately, instead of resorting to more lay-offs.

Tim and Liza Goodell (of A Restaurant and others) has a plan for the space vacated by Ristorante Max in Newport's Westcliff Plaza. Early next year, they're going to open their third outlet of 25 Degrees there. The other two 25 Degrees already in operation are in China and L.A.

I haven't been to either. But something struck me as familiar when I took a look at their menu. Is it just me or does the "Build Your Own Burger" section, with the list of toppings and sauces, sound a lot like The Counter's concept?

Browsed through the online ads for 99 Ranch today and I noticed something I'd never noticed before. On their flier, attached to pictures of items that are look remotely Asian in origin, there are now big cartoony bubbles that proclaim "Made in Taiwan" or "Made in Japan".

I'm pretty sure that before the Chinese milk scandal, they didn't bother doing this. So obviously, someone got wise and included the country of origin, because, let's face it, everyone's a little nervous nowadays about Chinese products -- especially when you still do your shopping in a Chinese supermarket like 99 Ranch.

Since everyone's already checking the "Made In" labels anyway, to me, this doesn't seem opportunistic -- just reactionary. Though, if you look closely at the flier, you'll also notice that there are Asian items that do NOT have the "Made in Taiwan" or "Made in Japan" text bubble.

Any guesses where they are from?

Amazingly, both parties have ignored Mexicans in this election. So leave it to the animal-abusing geniuses behind the No on Proposition 2 campaign (y'know, that nefarious measure that would force farmers to treat their animals humanely) to conjure up the spectre of the Reconquista in this ominous ad. Dig the long lines!

And it's not the first time Prop. 2 opponents have bagged on Mexico:

Just made it under the wire for Oktoberfest. Total Wine, the alkie's Costco (well, that's not an apt methapor since Costco has booze too doesn't it?), has opened in at the Tustin Marketplace (next to Best Buy) in what used to be a furniture store. Now that last part should give you an idea of its enormity. Count 'em: that's 20,000 square feet of wine, spirits, and beer.

In fact, their motto is this:

8,000 wines. 2,000 spirits. 1,000 beers.

To clarify, that's 8,000 different kinds of wines. 2,000 different kinds of spirits. 1,000 different kinds of beers. Or as it's otherwise known in fraternities: "a good weekend".

Although the store has been open since the 16th, today at 6 P.M., the mayor of Tustin will be there to cut the ribbon.

The latest Mother's Market had a soft opening this past weekend, and thank God for that: The proposed mother ship of O.C.'s O.G. hippy-dippy eco-food industry has a lot of work to do.

I visited late Sunday, jonesing for some munchies. The deli portion of the place won't be finished until its grand opening in a couple of weeks--fine, but they've had over a year to open the place; why the delays? It's twice as big as Mother's' other markets, with an over-emphasis on vitamin pills--SanTana needs more produce than remedies, and the aisle for fresh veggies and fruits is shockingly small. Prices are a bit much, but such is the burden of eating healthy in this modern world.

Here's the clincher, though: I finally decided on some chili almonds for my snack. I've grabbed a bag at Mother's Costa Mesa and Irvine locations before with no problem and overworked salivary glands, so toasty and spicy and nutsy they are. In SanTana's spot, they were horrible: bland, stale, disgusting. When milady asked for a refund, not only did it take about 10 minutes for three workers to make a decision about it (while a long line formed behind us and with no other registers open), but they also made us pay $3 more when they said we could get a replacement bag of pine nuts (no cash refunds)! North and Central County: go to Mother's only for its deli, which I'll return to try. Otherwise, get your goods at farmer's markets--cheaper, and with a much-friendlier atmosphere.

Final point: the music? Salsa and merengue. Mother's: we're in SanTana, not pinche Miami. I'm not even asking for norteño or banda--play some Grateful Dead like the quasi-racist Corner Bakery across the parking lot does.

On November 4th only, come in to any of Zov's three locations showing your "I Voted" sticker, and they'll give you a free slice of, what else, American apple pie.

Of course, before you get the free slice, they require that you either dine in and purchase any menu item, or order a "Zov's Family Take-Out Dinner for 2 or 4". But what did you expect? Free food with no strings attached? This is America! And what's more American than good ol' fashioned promotional marketing and lawyer-y fine print.

From Iowa. Iowa!:

Christopher Gudex was waiting at the Taco Bell drive-through, 1501 E. Euclid, at 2:53 p.m. Thursday. The woman ahead of him was taking too long at the speaker, he told police. He got out and asked her to hurry up, according to a police report. Gaudex, 45, and the woman began exchanging words, and the woman told him she was going to have her father come and beat him up.

And then it got better:

Miner [the woman] picked up her food and circled the Taco Bell while Gaudex was getting his food. Soon after, Anthony Miner, Alisha’s father, showed up, according to police.

Gaudex told police that Anthony punched him, knocking him to the ground, and continued to hit him.

The folks at The Retreat inside The Spa at SCP are hosting a Quentin Tarantino Costume Party tomorrow, Saturday October 25th, starting at 8 PM. The sushi-chef/rock-star Cody Requejo should be there, and since they're cookin' burgers, I'm sure Dave Mau will be too. He's the place's grill master after all.

On the menu are Jack Rabbit Slim Style Burgers, fries and some "pretty fucking good milkshakes". The milkshakes aren't five dollars though -- they're included the cost of admission along with the rest of the meal. Tickets are $15 if you get it presale, $20 at the door.

It will be poolside, and there will be a DJ spinning tracks. I'm thinking Kool & the Gang and Dick Dale are sure bets. Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" is probably a lock too.

The catch is that if you attend, you must dress like a Tarantino character. God forbid someone shows up as The Gimp.

I can't say I'm surprised. Besides, list like these are subjective, as all lists are. But this one, is especially so. A panel of four, consisting of "Food & Wine Restaurant Editor Kate Krader; Anya Fernald, executive director of Slow Food Nation; and Erik Wolf, president of the International Culinary and Tourism Association", did the picking.

But I can't say that I wasn't slightly disappointed that O.C. didn't even get a mention for all the wonderful ethnic foods we have. Doesn't Little Saigon, Little Seoul, all of Santa Ana, and Little Gaza count for something?

Sure, we could do a little better on the fine dining front, but we've still got our gems. Bluefin? Marche Moderne? You can't tell me they're not worthy.

Though I am intrigued on what the article has to say about the microbrewery scene San Diego, surely we're just as good as Tucson!

Or perhaps I'm reading it all wrong. The list says "Up-And-Coming". Perhaps being excluded means that we've already ARRIVED!

To read the article for yourselves, click HERE.

The gal and I have been eating a lot recently at the Corner Bakery in SanTana's failed City Place lofts because the food is surprisingly good--I always get the muy-cheap Anaheim scramble, although I'm still wondering why the chain named the meal that considering SanTana's not Anaheim, and there are no Anaheim chilies in it.

But the strangest thing in this Corner Bakery is a photo montage on the walls depicting SanTana life. The usual suspects appear--French Park, hipsters playing guitars, the old county courthouse, and so forth. A lot of white faces--a lot. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but in a city that's at least 85 percent Latino, ain't it a bit disconcerting that the only Latino faces on the wall are kitchen drones and an empty Fourth Street?

Today only, Mimi's Cafe in Laguna Niguel, in celebration of its "grand reopening" of that particular restaurant with a new interior and new menu items, will have a ribbon cutting with the mayor at 7:00 AM, and giveaways throughout the day totaling about $5000.

The best part is that the first 100 customers who are 18-years of age or older, will get $100 gift cards.

The restaurant is at 27430 La Paz Rd. in Laguna Niguel. The restaurant hours are from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Though the free gift cards, I expect, will be gone within the first hour or less.

*Moved up until someone wins...

Blind item: What famous local owner-chef, whose restaurant is a Weekly standard since our days in Costa Mesa (only hint I'll give) was caught shopping at a local Fresh & Easy? First person to leave the name and restaurant below gets a $20 gift certificate to their eatery! Weekly employees aren't eligible--we've been ordering from this place's places almost every week (another hint)!

By the way, Fresh & Easy is pretty damn good for a mega-chain--cheap prices and good store brands--their massive bar of Belgian chocolate bests anything made in the States with the exception of See's.

Melamine-tainted baby formula: tragic and scary.

Melamine-tainted pet food: sad.

Now a New York Times story reports that melamine has also been detected in edible adult sex accessories sold in England. It's still disturbing, of course, but somehow, this time, you can't help but chuckle a little bit -- if only because this might just be the first time the phrase "edible sex accessories" has ever appeared on the pages of The New York Times.

The short article goes on to reassure people who have eaten (ahem) from the Chinese-made strawberry "body pens" and erotic chocolate lotion that the levels of melamine discovered were low.

But it just goes to show that nothing, and I do mean nothing, is sacred.

In-N-Out, one of the best chains in history is celebrating its 60th anniversary tomorrow. This Southern California original always amazes me in that during the 60-years it's been cooking, quality or service hasn't declined.

Also, there's the consistency. No gimmicky items such as a pastrami or guacamole burger ever gets on the menu. Any new item is usually a product of customer request, and just involves one ingredient they already make, combined with another, like the Animal-Style Fries; and no item is ever retired.

However, I do wish they brought back John Goodman as its spokesman. His throaty pronouncements of the perfect lunch, broadcast over L.A. and O.C. radio waves, triggers an instant Pavlovian response and serves as a reminder "Hey, I haven't had one this week!"

I argue that there is no better champion of its deliciousness than him. Why? Well, its the kind of meal that only a fat man could credibly endorse.

My perfect In-N-Out meal? Hamburger Animal Style with Onion. Fries Well. Medium Coke.

What's yours?

Note: There's a hoax e-mail floating around that purported that the chain was lowering its prices on the date of its anniversary. I got a copy of it a few weeks ago. It is, of course, false. Tonight, I snapped a pic of this sign posted at the Tustin In-N-Out, whereupon the company responds.

Tomorrow, the newly formed Orange County Restaurant Association will have it's first mixer at the Manhattan Supper Club in Orange. Admission is $20 for OCRA members and $30 for non-members. Admission fee covers appetizers, soft drinks and one specialty cocktail. Guest receive a 15% discount on food and drinks if you wish to purchase additional items.

It'll be cash at the door, but if you want to RSVP, you can do so here.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Kalesa Grill in Anaheim, misspelling the Filipino restaurant's name as Kasela but not misrepresenting its great take on the archipelago's turo-turo buffet tradition. I visited again last weekend, only to find the dive is now named Pinoy Fiesta. Everything remains the same--layout, menu, television featuring strange Filipino shows--except the colors are now garishly pastel. Maybe to attract the Mexicans in Anaheim? If that's the case, the owners should heavily advertise their longanisa, the pork sausage with the greasiness of chorizo and the sweetness of a good piece of ham.

Pinoy Fiesta, 160 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim, (714) 778-1250.

A food tasting at a car dealership? Yep, you heard right. This weekend, Saturday, Oct. 18-19 from 11 AM-5 PM, Irvine BMW will host it's Third Annual Taste of Irvine BMW at its dealership at 9881 Research Drive in Irvine.

There will be a raffle where a percentage of the proceeds will go toward finding a cure for Fragile X, "the most common inherited cause of intellectual impairment and autism".

There will be complimentary everything, including valet and live entertainment, and, of course, free tastings from local restaurants. Expected to attend: Kimera Restaurant Lounge, BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, Kings Fish House, the Wine Pavilion, Donna B's Bakery, Pat & Oscar's, La Cocina De Ricardo, The Counter and TGIS Catering.

And if you come to this event with the intent of scoring some free food, but end up buying a new bimmer, well then, that's fine too.

Name: Every Burger

Origin: Japan

Found at: Freshia Market, Tustin

Cost: $1.99

Ingredients:
Wheat Flour, Sugar, Cacao Mass, Milk Powder, Palm Oil, Shortening, Margarine, Lactose, Cocoa Butter, Sesame Seed, Butter, Condensed Milk Powder, Egg, Corn Starch, Poppy Seed, Maltose, Wheat Meal, Glucose, Egg White, Salt, Calcinated Calcium, Leavening, Emulsifier (Soy), Artificial Flavor, Color (Annatto, Carotene).

Why I Bought It:
Well, look at it! Wouldn't you be curious what an Every Burger was? And since it was in the aisle where all the candies were, one can safely assume that it contains chocolate -- a fact confirmed by a quick glance at the ingredients list.

Another glance reveals not just one kind of powdered milk, but two. Plain old "Milk Powder" and "Condensed Milk Powder". I only point this out in case anyone is nervous about the China melamine-in-milk scandal and also, how there is such a thing as "condensed milk powder". That last part seems kind of redundant, somehow. In any case, any hesitation I had about the presence of powdered milk was mitigated somewhat by the fact that these are Japanese snacks, not Chinese.

Tasting Notes:
In a word: awesome. They actually look like burgers, but the size of your fingernail! They've got every detail captured, down to the sesame seed bun. The chocolate represents the beef patty. White chocolate, the cheese. And the "bun" is actually a cookie.

Apart from being hilarious and tasty, these buggers might also function well to teach tots that one junk food can look like another junk food, and that the Japanese are industrious and creative people with crazy ideas.

From the indomitable Dave Barry:

...a man armed with a knife held up a Taco Bell and got $2,300. The robber wore a ski mask to disguise his identity. This plan would have worked flawlessly, except that, during the robbery, the robber made one teensy mistake: He pulled one of the Taco Bell workers aside, lifted his mask and said, "It's me, Tim." Yes. It turns out that the robber used to work at this Taco Bell, and he chose that particular moment to say hi to a former co-worker.

Leave it up to my alma mater's paper, The New University, to do front line reporting on the frozen yogurt battle raging across the street from the school.

When the gauntlet was dropped on September 26th -- that's when the University Town Center outlet of Yogurtland opened yards away from Golden Spoon -- they were there, interviewing the two sides.

One has been a fixture at the University Town Center since 1987. The other, the upstart, is part of the empire that has so far managed to hold off Pinkberry and others.

Both serve frozen yogurt and each purports itself to be a healthy alternative to ice cream. Although one does it the old fashioned way, served from behind the counter. While the other leaves it to you and prices by weight.

This is a war that will undoubtedly incur many casualties: waist lines, money from parents; but judging from what the owner of Golden Spoon has to say, his shop won't be one of them.

I'll let The New University's Kristian Cloyd to tell you the rest of the story.

The Newport Beach City Council will vote today on an ordinance to ban Sytrofoam products. Initially proposed by students of Newport Harbor High School, the citywide ban would curb the use of those to-go containers we are all too familiar with, but according to The Daily Pilot, it includes a hardship clause that "exempts restaurants if eliminating Styrofoam products from their businesses would cause owners undue economic hardship and no reasonable alternative can be found."

Similar ordinances are already in effect in Laguna Hills.

Update Oct. 15: The Newport Beach City Council was unanimous in banning Styrofoam. Final approval is expected to happen Oct. 28th. If it passes this final step, the ban will begin April 29th of next year.

Genki Living in Irvine, the Japanese crepe joint that was actually owned by Taiwanese, has closed.

It started offering their crepes, both savory (ham and cheese) and sweet (Nutella and banana), sometime around two years ago. I liked their takoyaki, in all their octopusiness. And they also made two kinds of okonomiyaki there.

But truth be told, the last time I actually ate something there was...sometime around two years ago.

Now the only Genki Living left in O.C. is the one in Garden Grove.

Spent the weekend hawking books at the Anaheim Historical Society's biannual home tour. There, many folks told me the bad news: Cafe Contigo, located just down the street from Anaheim City Hall, is no more.

I reviewed it late last year, just a couple of weeks after it opened, and made it my place to meet Anaheim sources. They drank coffee, Cuban-approved by Weekly editor Ted Kissell (who spent years in south Florida and therefore knows his media noches from ropa viejas), while I munched on delicious sandwiches and pastries shipped in from the famous Porto's Bakery in Glendale. WiFi, indoor fountain, gorgeous pictures of pre-Castro Cuba--Cafe Contigo was too beautiful for our Cuban-bereft county.

The closing of Cafe Contigo shows again that OC's Cuban cuisine scene is lacking. Raffi's in Tustin closed years ago, and Habana Cabana in Huntington Beach pales to the Cuban restaurant that preceded it (haven't tried the Cuban place in Brea, though). Worst of all, the legendary Felix's Continental Cafe on the Orange Circle is now good only for the view, pastel de tres leches, and their weird, relishy salsa--everything else has sunken in quality since the founder passed away a couple of years ago. So sad...

The Pelican Grill at the Pelican Hill Resort is the last place I would think of when it comes to Monday Night Football. After all, this is a valet-parking, ocean-views, uniformed-waiter, white-table-cloth kind of establishment, where the customers are the country-club types, not the average Joe Six-Pack (to borrow a recently heard term).

But that's not stopping Donald Bren and company. They've got two 9'x6' HDTVs that will be tuned to the game and a "Burger and Brews" menu to feed any deep-pocketed sports fans in attendance.

Since this is still Pelican Grill, it won't be your typical pub fare. For their "burgers", they boast the use of Brandt Farm Beef, Norbest free-range turkey, and of course, American Kobe.

Here's a sampling of what'd fill up your gut if you were to go to the Pelican Grill for Monday Night Football:

- Colorado High Mountain Lamb, made with fresh ground Colorado lamb, tomato, cucumber and hummus herb yogurt sauce.

- Ahi Tuna, with #1 grade ahi tuna steak, piquillo peppers, balsamic onions, lettuce and mayonnaise.

- Dungeness Crab Cake, with romaine lettuce, tomato and tarter sauce.

- Surf and Turf made with fresh ground Brandt farm beef, half Maine lobster, sautéed spinach and whole grain mustard sauce.

The coup de grâce is called The Classic Burger Rossini, made with American Kobe, sautéed foie gras and black truffle Madeira sauce. The cost? A cool $50.

Joe Six-Pack might get a beating from Jane Hockey-Mom if she ever saw the tab.

On related news, although The Irvine Company laid off about 100 administrative employees this past August, it's been on a hiring frenzy at the Pelican Hill Resort in anticipation for its opening on November 26. Reports have put the number at about a thousand new hires, and suggest that it will top out around 4,400 by that target date.

A few months ago, Orange County had its first crudo bar in Blanca; and now, not so much. There was already signs of trouble back in July when repo men were sent to rip out equipment from its kitchens as Newport Beach police stood guard. Blanca's suppliers said the restaurant wasn't paying their bills.

Then there was word that the chef left because they were allegedly not paying him either. Now the restaurant is under new management, and most importantly, has changed over to serving "Coastal Mexican". The closest you'll get to crudo there now is most likely ceviche, which is probably for the better anyway. Blanca's crudo, while good, was exorbitant. Not the kind of meal anyone can justify paying for in this economy.

The real story here, though, is about The Mor Project, the developers who were behind Blanca and Irezumi Sushi. They seemed to have disappeared from the face of the world, or at least the world wide web. Their website (http://www.morproject.com/) is offline, and so is Irezumi Sushi's.

The first hit on Google if you search for "The Mor Project" sheds some light on why. Posted two days ago, this website called The Rip-Off Report has a post by an "investor" who is allegedly suing its founder. And if you believe what the anonymous poster has to say, it's safe to assume that the wine bar and restaurant dubbed Fleur de L’Age the group was building at The Irvine Spectrum won't be opening soon, or ever.

Rumbi Island Grill, a concept that describes itself as "tropical fast casual dining", is slated to open fifteen locations in Orange County in its push into California. About five or six are planned to be operational by 2009. No word on where the exact locations will be. Rumbi has existing stores in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah.

From their website, the focus isn't just Hawaiian island food, but stuff inspired by Bali and Jamaica -- anything that conjures up paradise in the minds of mainland Americans.

There's kalua pork, but also Jamaican jerk, and mahi-mahi seasoned with something called a "Volcano Spice Blend". Though the one item that got my attention was their "Kahuna Burger". One of my all time favorite movies is, of course, Pulp Fiction.

I don't cook much, but I still love browsing through cooking supply stores. Sur La Table is such a place, filled with gadgets I'll never use, at prices I can never justify paying. But again, it's fun to browse.

A new one will open up at the Irvine Spectrum soon -- the second in OC -- occupying the space vacated by The Sharper Image, which was also another place I loved to window shop, if only to ask the perennial question, "Who buys this crap?"

Of course, the answer to that is: practically nobody.

Homer Simpson had the right idea all along.

But, really there are no words I need to preface this video with, except: MONKEY WAITERS!!!

Since filing for bankruptcy protection, David Wilhelm's Culinary Adventures seems to be doing something proactive about it: offering cheap meals.

For those just tuning in, Savannah is a rebranding of Chat Noir -- an effort to make the place more seem downscale and affordable. But as I noted in this review, the dinner prices, even the make-up of most of the dishes, were exactly the same...it was still Chat Noir -- the same ol' pussy cat with a different name tag.

But now they're actually serving bargain-priced "express" lunches. This new offering is advertised via a banner, draped outside their building facing the street. It proclaims that all lunch items are between $4-$9, served Monday – Friday, 11:30 - 2:00 pm.

Looking at their sample menu online, it looks promising. $9 for a French Dip with homemade chips or salad? That's about how much it would cost at any number of sandwich shops out there.

We like the Crosby, we really do. We cheered their fight against the idiot SanTana bureaucrats. We like co-owners Chris Alfaro, Phil Nisco and Marc Yamaoka 'cause they always sport a smile and some weird-ass T-shirt (one of their workers was wearing one with Steve Urkel's mugshot--I remember that episode!). Their lair's vibe is happening, the music ever-eclectic, the ambitions lofty.

But in the matter in which I'm concerned with professionally for the purposes of this post--great food in OC--the Crosby is still not worthy of praise.

I visited the downtown SanTana restaurant-cum-hangout space twice last week because milady loves the place, especially their selections of beer and wine. Me? I don't drink swill and rotten grapes, and pined for Johnny Sampson's Maker's Mark across the street at Memphis at the Santora. But the lack of booze is the least of my concerns--the Crosby's menu is too hit-and-miss for me to return, at least for a couple of months while they tighten the menu (though the place has already been open for a couple of months).

The hits: a house salad I never tasted 'cause my gal inhaled it like some do air. Massive pasta bowls with nuance and heft. A Thai vegan wrap (just call it a burrito, will ya fellas?) with a lurking spicy sauce that'll kick you in the end. Some of the best chili in Orange County--and the big bowl is vegan.

The Gary Matthews, Jr.-esque misses: A vegan pizza that was downright disgusting--too many tomatoes, nothing to counterbalance the acidity, an overall mess. A bitter take on bananas Foster--bitter in a dessert notorious for its ostentatious decadence!* One night we went, the waitress took about 20 minutes to bring me a cup of hot water and lemon, and ignored us the rest of the night (in fairness, we experienced a perfect waitress--smiles, service, sweetness--another night). I don't mind rude waiters--hell, that's the service one can expect anywhere in Little Saigon. But at least those folks bug you until you order. The offending Crosby waitress? Nada.

I'll return to the Crosby in a couple of months, because the good is promising. The bad, however, is inexcusable. Not every dish in a restaurant has to be magnificent, but the worst a chef can settle on is "pretty good," not "average" and definitely not what I ate. Hang out at the Crosby, and get drunk off beer and wine until late in the morning. But if you're hungry, go down the street to Memphis--or, better yet, Jason's Downtown.

*Full disclosure: I was suffering from a nasty cold the night I tried this, but my tastebuds weren't that skewed--earlier in the day, I had enjoyed the pad Thai at Bangkok Taste and a koobideh plate at Wholesome Choice, and both tasted how I always remember them--bueno.

An uninterested pooch. An affable narrator. And a Japanese mom-type doing the cooking. These are the simple components that make up one of my favorite cooking shows, called "Cooking with Dog".

You won't find it on the Food Network or even PBS. It's only on YouTube.

The shows started last year, and cover the gamut of Japanese dishes, from sukiyaki to its current episode where they make sanma takikomi gohan. Each one breezes through at a fast clip (no show is more than 5 minutes long). And it is shot, lit and edited crisply. The directions are spoken in perfect English without an ounce of snootiness and just a touch of a Japanese accent.

By the end, even if you don't intend to replicate what you just saw, you are always educated.

I've had numerous AHA-so-that's-how-they-make-that moments watching the show. I guarantee you will too.

The only thing that will leave you puzzled is how they manage to keep that dog sitting still.

A weekly series in which we scan police blotters across the world to find the craziest crime occurring at an outpost of Orange County's most infamous fast-food chain...

From West Virginia:

A late night trip to get some fast food from Taco Bell in the Kanawha City area of Charleston, W.Va., landed a Boone County man behind bars.

State troopers say Jonathan Ball was waiting in the drive-thru lane. When the vehicles ahead of Ball moved up, he sat still.

A trooper went to check on him and said he discovered Ball asleep at the wheel with a strong smell of alcohol coming from the car.

After Ball woke up, troopers say he failed a sobriety test and was arrested.

Irvine's Veggie Grill is slated to open it's second Irvine outlet at The Irvine Spectrum, fellow food-blogger Brekkie Fan told me. The original, across from UCI, has become the darling of local vegetarians and omnivores alike, thanks to one of the co-founders of Costa Mesa's Native Foods.

As Brekkie Fan succinctly puts it, "tempeh is the new chicken"; and soon those whose who stream out of Edwards Irvine Spectrum can have it in lieu of Johnny Rockets.

HACK! SPLUT! COUGH! Sorry for the non-blogging 'round these parts, folks, but HACK! HACK! ACHOO! I got a nasty cold-turned-into-fever from visiting Minnesota earlier this week PHLEGM MUCUS BARBARA COE. Turns out my Weekly keeper, Nick Schou, was also sick, so we hit up our favorite remedy yesterday: the pho at Pho Hien Vuong in SanTana.

This small restaurant does not offer the best pho in Little Saigon--you'll have to tune into our coming Best of issue for that--but it is reputedly the first place in Orange County to serve the legendary Vietnamese beef-noodle soup. (I'd link to my 2005 review, but it's lost in the rabbit hole known as the Weekly's archives...). I wouldn't even recommend this place usually for pho--its recent beautification has raised prices by at least two dollars in the couple of years I've been eating here, and Pho Cali is just a few blocks away. But I still enjoy Pho Hien Vuong because they always include new entrees on their whiteboard. Yesterday, it was a perfectly fried calamari pared with an interesting dipping sauce (really, more of a salty-sour-spicy rub), which Nick and I shared, and some pan-seared beef curiosity that I will get next SNOT PHTOOEY time I visit.

Instead, I stuck with the pho. I'll spare you the descriptive couplets food critics usually use in their reviews. Good. Nourishing. Yummy. Broth. Flank. Jalapeño. Slices. Much goodness. Am recovering COUGH COUGH and whatever sound a fever sweat makes. Pho Hien Vuong muy bueno.

Pho Hien Vuong, 2525 Westminster Ave, #H, Santa Ana, (714) 554-2696.

This Saturday, October 4, is the City of Irvine's Annual Global Village Festival, held from from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. at Bill Barber Park.

Festival admission and parking are free. There will be musical performances and of course, lots of dancing, including hula, belly, and break.

But what's a festival without food. Listed below are all the vendors who are expected to show.

If you'd like to see what the shindig's actually like, check out my buddy Chubbypanda's blog post from last year.

Tell all your friends! Tell your neighbors! Michael Mina's givin' out free food at Stonehill Tavern. Okay, so it's not exactly his tasting menu; It's just a few canapes, about three or four types per night, served at the bar every Thursday from 5:30 PM to 7 PM. They're doing this for the rest of the year.

I called them to ask what to expect, and the nice lady who answered mentioned that the hors d'oeuvres can be anything that's fresh or they feel like making that day. Kobe beef sliders? Tuna tartare? Lobster spring rolls? Who cares? It's free and it's presumably made by the same chefs who craft Stonehill Tavern's super luxe dinners.

Plus, she said, their cocktails are discounted to $9. Usually they retail at about $16-18.

If this sounds like Happy Hour, it is; but don't dare call it that. This is Michael Mina's at the St. Regis, after all. Call it what they call it: "social hour".

Have you noticed something lately? Izakayas -- the Japanese equivalent to the gastro-pub, tapas house, and neighborhood bar all wrapped up into one -- are popping up all over O.C.

So many izakayas have opened lately, in fact, that the trend is obvious: Izakaya is the new sushi.

Last year, Takashi Abe of Bluefin fame debuted his Izakaya Zero in Huntington Beach. Then the Wasa Sushi people introduced their Izakaya Wasa at the Irvine Spectrum. And a mere two blocks away from Honda Ya -- arguably the grand daddy of them all -- Oki Doki opened up its own izakaya in the shell of another Japanese restaurant.

Now another there is another new one in Tustin called Haru Izakaya (at 526 1st St.). Someone tipped me off that it just opened a few weeks ago, occupying a space that used to be a sushi joint (which I can't recall the name of).

And although the name harkens Haru Ulala in L.A. (another acclaimed izakaya), I do not think there is a connection. So far I haven't tried it, but when I looked into its windows while it wasn't yet open for the evening, I saw something at the counter that already earns the place some points.