Burgers for everyone

I love hamburgers. There's just something about ground beef hugged loosely between two soft and chewy buns that starts the motors in my salivary glands. So imagine my elation today when I discovered a hamburger blog, A Hamburger Today. I don't think the author eats a new burger a day -- and that's a good thing, because his heart will likely fail within the year -- but everything is kept to the realm of burgers. There's even a post about the Apple Pan in West L.A., my favorite burger joint so far, probably until I try the burgers at The Counter or Father's Office on the Westside. Try searching posts by location.

In case you care, I like my burger meat well-done but maintaning a bit of juice and topped with ketchup and mustard, a swath of mayo, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, and when I'm especially feeling indulgent, bacon and an onion ring. Firm beef patties are not the way to go. I need my patty to fall apart as soon as I bite into it.

No Pocky for kitty

Or for me either, in this case. Right now I'm eating a poorly executed version of Pocky called Pepero that my mom must have gotten from the Korean market. The mascot on the red box is kind of creepy -- a happy-go-lucky kid dressed in a brown one-piece and jutting out of his head is a long stick covered in chocolate. Look ma, he loves Pepero so much that one's growing out of his head! Hmm, it's blatantly phallic but that could just be the Freud or sicko in me talking. Overall this inferior chocolate stick is waxy-tasting and doesn't have the same satisfying crunch that I'm used to getting from Pocky. The stick itself seems to be made more like a cookie than a cookie with cracker characteristics. As for the chocolate, it isn't very good either and not worth analyzing. I'll pass on this one.

The overwhelming task of thinking about and eating food

I've been neglecting my responsibility to write about food, not for the sake of fatsos and foodies out there, but as a personal duty to myself. My excuse? The sheer overwhelming task of documenting all the food that I like. Plus, I've been sick for a while and haven't been indulging as much as I usually do. If I were to tell you what I ate last week, you'd think I were a rabbit and would never again give me the authority to tell you about great places to eat. That said, I did have an amazing meal last week at a restaurant near my house, the Tofu House (Norwalk and Artesia boulevards). This place is apparently a chain with spots across SoCal, but as my little sister can attest after eating at a Tofu House in Koreatown, we are blessed with the best one (OK, the best one of the two). You'd never know that tofu could become more than a white piece of polar bear crap until you ate here.

While waiting for a table, you can entertain yourself by grabbing a tiny cup of hot chocolate or coffee that's dispensed from a tabletop machine that you find in Korean restaurants. But this hot chocolate is unlike any other -- heavy yet simultaneously uplifting and gives you a warm feeling that borders on the sexual. After you're seated and order your choice of tofu and mixer (I always go for the dumplings), that's when the visual assault happens. Waitresses carry huge platters of small plates to be shared and throw them like Frisbees onto the table. You have kimchi and some fishy-spicy red stuff in one corner, bean sprouts and cucumber coated with red stuff (what is that called?) in another, and seaweed paper and eggs in white shells in the last. Then comes the tofu soup, boiling like an erupting volcano. That's your chance -- crack open the egg and drop the baby into the broth and mix it around so it'll cook. The mofo is still so hot at this time that it often forces me to sit through 10 minutes of torturous hunger pangs before I can indulge. Finally, an hour later, the piece de resistance: the soft-serve help-yourself-you-can-eat-more-go-ahead-and-eat-10 ice cream machine that dispenses an addicting swirl of icy (as in crystals) ice cream.

And then you go home and have to lie down because the experience was just too much on the senses.

Madeleines

Oh god, these sound so good right about now. I haven't tried this recipe yet, but it comes from a good source.

Also a link on how to make those divine European macaroons that look like little sandwich cookies, all gorgeous-colored and just begging to be eaten.

There's nothing that makes me happier than reading recipes and imagining what the results will taste like.