Tired of the same old gin and tonics? Looking to liven up your libations? That's what I was doing when I waltzed into local Long Beach gem, Coco Reno's earlier this week (they serve a hell of a burrito there, in case you're interested). I muscled up the bar, took a seat and asked the bartender to hit me with her best shot. She did. The Raspberry Kamikaze.

Holy fucking shit. I could drink an entire bottle of these things--and that night, I almost did.
 
Four shots later I decided to call it quits--it was 5 p.m. on a Tuesday, after all. But the taste stuck with me and the next night I was ordering the hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-me with my dinner! They're dangerous, these kamikaze missions, but they're worth it.

Composed of three simple ingredients--vodka, sweet & sour mix and raspberry liqueur--this shot will knock your socks off in the best way possible. I highly recommend arranging for a sober driver if you plan on flying high on some of these babies yourself. It may have been popular for kamikaze pilots to try and take others out during WWII, but it's best to leave the pain you're sure to experience from these little gems to the self-inflicted variety. 

Coco Reno's, 3400 E. Broadway St., Long Beach, CA 90803; 562-438-9381

I'm proud to announce that Edwin and I won first place last night in the food feature category at the Orange County Press Club Awards! Beat out all other local publications for our food issue last year, "Brother, Can You Spare a Taco?" Judges said something about our sass and food knowledge, although I'd like to think I'm the Lewis and he's the Martin of that food issue. And you ain't seen nothing yet: next week is the latest Weekly food issue, and Lesley's in the mix, as well!

One question people asked last night: is Edwin real? People have insisted over the years that Edwin Goei is my pseudonym, that there's no way a mere blogger could've risen from obscurity to being the chief, AWARD-WINNING (yay, Edwin!) food critic for a major O.C. newspaper. Sorry, folks: Edwin is real, and I have video proof. This is Edwin in his writing den...

Edwin Goei

​I found out this week, after writing a blog review of Sushi 5, that the day after I had my meal and the day before I wrote the post, the restaurant had closed for good.

These past five days, we blogged about organic food, over-salty food and fragrance-free food.

We also broke news of Azhak Hussam, who has invented a chocolate-flavored "Ramadan Fasting Tablet" that apparently can help dieters too.

And, in the world of frozen dessert, I raged about the love-it-or-hate-it Baskin-Robbins ad (click below to watch it in its full glory), while Edwin mused about froyo varieties he'd like to see.
 
 

​Yes, it's that time again. After an optimistic June, when no restaurants (that we know of) closed for good, a few did so in July:

Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits, Fashion Island, Newport Beach

Dickey's Barbecue Pit, Irvine

Baja Fresh, Anaheim Hills

Zpizza, Foothill Ranch

Tracht's, Long Beach. The official word is that "Suzanne Tracht and the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel have decided to end their business relationship.  Effective July 25, 2009, Tracht's Restaurant was replaced with The Renaissance Bar & Grill."

And another one, as blogged by Edwin today: Sushi 5 in Tustin.

And, just as we were hoping things were turning around, a report by the NPD Group this week stated that there were 4,000 fewer restaurants in the US this spring (when the last survey was carried out) compared with the previous year. Fine-dining establishments have been hardest hit, while major chains saw slight growth. For the full details, CLICK HERE.

Still, onwards and upwards!

​Billed as "an old-fashion country fair", the "61th" annual bash will run from August 7 to 9.

Local schools will attend the event, which is hosted by the La Habra Host Lions Club, and proceeds will be used to provide free eye exams and glasses for needy students.
 
Not only will you be able to cram your cakehole with the yellow stuff, plus other grub, but there will also be games and musical entertainment, and vendors will be selling the usual fair-like stuff such as jewelry and clothing, and they'll be doing face painting and henna tattooing.

A parade is held on the Saturday morning, and a corn-eating contest takes place on both the Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

But wait, there's more!!

You can also meet Miss La Habra and try your luck in a competition to win a car.

And if your kids are particularly photogenic, why not enter them in the baby contest? It's $5 to register; call (562) 889-2805 for details.

Festivities kick off on the Friday at 5.30 p.m. For the full rundown, visit the website.

 

Taco Man appreciates those who help his preparers...

​ My cover story on Orange County loncheros sparked an outraged letter from Sean Mill, longtime SanTana activist, sometimes-blogger for the wonderfully libelous Orange Juice!, and current SanTana planning commissioner. What got his attention was this part of the piece:

But the taco-truck battle in Santa Ana isn't over. Santa Ana officials have created the Renaissance Specific Plan (RSP), an ambitious redevelopment project for the city's downtown that critics claim will gentrify the area's heavily Latino businesses and residents out of the area. Among the new rules proposed is the elimination of taco trucks altogether. The RSP states, "All business activities [within the RSP boundaries] shall be conducted and located within an enclosed building" and, "No sales shall be made directly from a building to persons on a public sidewalk."

Mill hadn't heard of the provision and told us he confronted the rest of the Planning Commission about the issue at their most recent meeting this past Monday. "They looked at me as if I had three heads or something," he said. "They didn't seem to recall that being in there."

Such bull! It's right there, in section I(a) and (e) in Chapter 4.3 of the current plan.

"It will be my pleasure to oversee its exclusion," Mill says. All right, taco truck lovers: email SanTana city officials! And thank Mill for being a voice for the hungry...

​As reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition yesterday, the British-commissioned survey, which took its findings from 55 studies made in the past 50 years, claims that eating organic food "will make no important difference to a person's overall health".

According to Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors, "A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance."


"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

The findings are bound to cause controversy, and perhaps damage to organic farming communities, which are already struggling in the recession, as consumers turn to cheaper alternatives to feed their families. Sales of organic produce reached nearly $25 billion last year in the US alone, and while the numbers had been booming over the last decade or so, some producers have seen the growth taper off.

Those who can afford to buy organic may well continue to do so, but for those who are on the fence, this study may have made their decision for them.

While the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) didn't return my calls, Whole Foods did send me their official statement in response to the findings, and, no surprise, opine that the study fell short in some ways, saying:

"Our shoppers choose organic food for many reasons--to avoid synthetic pesticide residue, because it is often fresher and better tasting, and because organic farmers grow in earth-friendly ways that support the environment. Nutritional quality is one of many potential variables related to the advantages of organic food, but for us, there are already plenty of well-documented reasons to choose organic.

The authors of this study examine the abstracts of 50 years of nutritional studies, looking for differences in nutrition between organic and non-organic foods, and conclude that there aren't any major differences. They don't rule out the possibility that there could be nutritional advantages, but acknowledge that none has been demonstrated so far. This isn't a surprising finding, since until very recently, there has been very little governmental or non-profit support of academic nutrition research focused directly on organic agriculture. In general, most nutrition research has not differentiated between organic and conventional crops.

We are optimistic that improved support of organic nutrition research--including the increase of organic research funding in the 2008 Farm Bill, and the work of organizations like The Organic Center--will show that nutritional advantages are another reason that organic agriculture is better than conventional."

That's largely where I stand too: I will still buy organic where possible (in particular milk and certain fruit and veg; CLICK HERE for the list of suggested must-buys). Even if it doesn't make much difference to my health in the long run--which, by the way, I find hard to believe--it sure as hell tastes better and is easier on the environment. And do I really want to be ingesting all those hideous chemicals anyway?

UPDATE, August 5: The main scientist behind the controversial findings, Dr Alan Dangour, has, of course, now started to receive hate mail. Depressing.

Dave Spataro Photography

​Suzanne Tracht, the first winner of the season's Top Chef Masters*, is going to pull the plug on her namesake restaurant at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach. Food GPS broke the story.

​A class-action suit filed in New Jersey by longtime Denny's patron Nick DeBenedetto and backed by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) alleges that "Most meals at Denny's restaurants meals are dangerously high in salt, putting the chain's customers at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke."

The CSPI claims that Denny's nutritional information should be available in its restaurants, not just online, and wants a judge to force Denny's to disclose on its menus the amount of table salt (sodium chloride) in each of its meals and to place a notice on its menus warning about high sodium levels.

It had been in talks with the chain earlier this year, and Denny's did go on to reduce the amount of sodium in some dishes, as part of its Better For You selection, but that's not enough for the CSPI, which states that, "By concealing an important material fact about its products--namely, that that these foods have disease-promoting levels of sodium--Denny's is failing its responsibility to its customers and is in violation of the laws of New Jersey and several other states."

A Denny's spokesman has retorted, saying the company "will fight the lawsuit aggressively in court. With hundreds of items on the menu, Denny's offers a wide variety of choices for consumers with different lifestyles, understanding that many have special dietary needs."

So what are the safe and "dangerous" levels being talked about? According to the US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture, the maximum recommended amount of sodium per day is 2,300 milligrams, or 1,500 milligrams for black people, middle-aged and older adults, and anyone with hypertension. DeBenedetto, aged 48, who takes a prescription medication to control his high blood pressure and who "at home does not cook with salt or use the salt shaker" (the implication being that Denny's may be the cause of his high BP), often opts for the Moons Over My Hammy or the Super Bird turkey sandwich, both of which contain far more than 1,500 mg, "even without soup, salad, fried onion rings, or other side dishes".

Indeed, on the face of it, it seems that eating a full meal at Denny's is like taking your life in your hands: a bowl of clam chowder, a Spicy Buffalo Chicken Melt and a side of seasoned fries contains 6,700 mg of sodium in total--more than four days' worth of sodium.

Says DeBenedetto, "I was astonished--I mean, literally floored--to find that these simple sandwiches have more salt than someone in my condition should have in a whole day. It's as if Denny's is stacking the deck against people like me. I never would have selected those items had I known."

The statement by the CSPI goes so far as to say, "Denny's is slowly sickening its customers... For those Americans who should be most careful about limiting their sodium, it's dangerous to eat at Denny's."

Dr. Stephen Havas, of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, has also weighed in on the issue, warning that for some people, particularly Denny's elderly patrons, getting several days' worth of sodium in a single meal might be enough to trigger congestive heart failure."

In addition to the Denny's lawsuit, the CSPI has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to regulate salt as a food additive and to restrict sodium levels in various categories of food.

Agreed, it's a good idea for nearly all of us to cut down on salt, and the levels in some of Denny's dishes do seem shockingly high, but, newsflash to Mr DeBenedetto: Could you really not taste it? I mean, who goes to Denny's thinking they're going to get a healthy meal? It's easy, cheap comfort food, pure and simple.

In any case, it's not just the salt you need to watch out for, but the fat content too. I mean, c'mon, that's about as ridiculous as trying to sue McDonald's for making us fat. Oh, wait.