Is that a leather cap?

I had lunch with someone recently at TK Burgers, and when I told them about this particular SAFII feature, they mentioned how their mother once had a credit card stolen. Among the items charged to the lady's accounty? Taco Bell. From the Baltimore area:

The male subject in the included photos is being sought for questioning in connection with a theft and use of a stolen bank card. The theft occurred on May 16, 2009 while the victim was visiting a restaurant in Bel Air.

The suspect then used the bank credit card to make purchases at the following locations: Citgo gas station on North Avenue, Baltimore; Taco Bell in Bel Air; and, the WAWA in Bel Air. In addition, several other transactions occurred at retail establishments in Baltimore County.

Still don't get their logo, but whatever...

I haven't been too nice to the Crosby, the SanTana hipster haunt who I've previously called out for uneven food and for one of its owners cracking easy Mexican food jokes. But I'm man enough to take back what I've said if proven wrong, or at least open enough for another try. And I've been planning to return for a couple of weeks now, ever since Crosby owner and Free the Robots madman Chris Alfaro MySpaced me to say he appreciated the criticisms but urged me to return because they were going to revamp the menu soon.

I got a hint of what was to come on Wednesday, when my chica returned from the Crosby with slices of pepperoni pizza. What was once limp was now fat, slightly greasy, hearty and passed the cold pizza test. We returned yesterday, and the menu was radically different from what I remembered. Gone was about half of it, and the remaining half featured new items (fritters, roasted tomatoes of some sort) that I must try soon. But distracting me was a weekly menu and a monthly special menu: the Crosby had gone gourmet and relatively locavore. Hipsters caring about something other than their wolf T-shirts and image? Nah...
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According to the Daily Pilot, In-N-Out wants to put up a 65-foot freeway sign at the site of where Kaplan's Deli used to be; right off the Harbor exit from the 405.

"As much as I like In-N-Out, I don't want to subject the city to what amounts to a 65-foot billboard at the entrance to the city," commission Chairman Jim Righeimer said.

...and;

"Several residents also told the commission that they enjoy the restaurant's burgers but think the proposed location would cause severe traffic backups..."

Anyway, I'm not sure that the sign In-N-Out wants to put up will be one of their infamous 3D relief billboards, but I remember seeing one once, I think somewhere in Riverside County.  They used to stock it with dry ice or something.  At regular intervals smoke would spew out between those giant patties.  Sometimes, the smoke machine (or whatever it was) would malfunction and shroud the entire thing in a haze.  That always looked so cool.  

But I can see where the Costa Mesa residents are coming from.  If I have to see one out my window every morning...I dunno...that might suck.  Especially if it's just one of those boring 2D ones that doesn't spew out smoke.

Edwin Goei

I never tried Blue Fish in Santa Ana, but I knew of its existence. Recently, I noticed it ceased to exist. The storefront it formerly occupied has been stripped bare. Inside, there was nothing left but some semblance of what used to be a sushi bar.

The lovely peeps at the famed cupcakery are at it again. Sometimes their giveaways are limited to the first 25 or 50 customers, but others are more generous, such as today's (Thursday's).

Whispher "breakfast" before noon at any Sprinkles location and you'll get a complimentary cinnamon sugar cupcake.

And if it's free it also means there are no calories in it, right? Right?

If you're a run-of-the-mill conspiracy-obsessed lefty, you're blaming the swine flu on corporate farming practices, operations that stuff livestock into dens of feces to create horrible humane condition ripe for all types of pathogens to mutate and infect humans. But if you're Hector Carreon, the former Buena Park city employee and fulltime pendejo who runs the gay-bashing, Jew-trashing La Voz de Aztlan, you blame the Jews.

In a May 20 post writing under his pseudonym "Ernesto Cienfuego," Carreon spins a tale so congested with idiotic tendencies he might as well call it the Orange Crush. He mentions the recent completion of a project that mapped out the Mexican genome and claims it was probably used to create the swine flu in a laboratory in order to target Mexicans. The principal evildoer? Mexico's former Minister of Health, Julio Frenk, whom Carreon identifies as a Jew by using the crayons with which all La Voz de Aztlan articles are originally scrawled out to draw a crude yarmulke on a picture of Frenk. Carreon then ties Frenk to neocons at Harvard, whom he ties to Israel, and then provides a grabbag of links in which he previously claimed Jews were trying to destroy Mexico.

Hormel

According to this article in MarketWatch, the demand for Spam has risen. It doesn't go as far as to directly link the increase to the economy, but the implication is there. 

Edwin Goei

Two stories involving Chinese food caught my attention last week. First, there's local news about what is arguably one of OC's best Chinese restaurants, China Garden in Irvine. Fellow OC Food Blogger Julian Hsu has the scoop. In his post, he writes: "We just ate there for dimsum lunch today, and noticed a sign in the windows indicating that the new owner will be "VIP Seafood Restaurants, Inc."

Since I last wrote about the event, which runs until June 2, it's more than doubled in size, with 27 restaurants, pubs and bars confirmed, including Duke's.

There are brilliant bargains to be had (check the website for details), and, even better, this chowing is for charity!

Edwin Goei

Saw this on sale at Costco this weekend and it was so thick with irony, I could not resist taking a picture. To me it seems like the worst case of brand dilution since what California Adventure has meant for Disney theme parks; but even more so.