Add to the resume: Tour Guide

It’s been only a few weeks but I’ve searched and sniffed out and overturned little haunts and famous places. I culled them together to create a Vayable tour.

What do you mean you don’t know Vayable? Well if you’re going on vacation, check this site out to find cool interesting things to partake in.

I call it A Little Walk Through Little Tokyo.  At the very intersection of America and Japan I give an Arts & Culture Lecture on the intersection of American and Japanese culture.  (Note: The first thought was to call it Big Trouble in Little Tokyo)

So, click on through to the other side: https://www.vayable.com/experiences/5770-little-walk-through-little-tokyo

Tell your friends, Tell your cousins, Don’t tell your creepy Uncle. On second thought, go ahead tell your creepy Uncle. Everyone’s invited to this delightful and surprising tour!

Close Up on today’s lunch

Today’s meal deserves it’s own close up. So here you go. All the fried goodness of a sampler plate at Fisherman’s Outlet.

A full plate makes a full belly

Today’s foodie adventure brought me to the industrial zone of downtown.  While swerving to make way for random 18 wheelers, a corner restaurant caught my eye. There in the middle of miles of asphalt lay an oasis of fish. All the fried seafood you’d ever want.  Plenty of food for plenty of cents.  You’re not going to break the bank coming here but your belly might burst. Have I given them enough free marketing material yet?

Above the place is a billboard for a strip club. I wonder how many people pulled into the three space parking lot thinking they’d see some bare breasts but all they got was a menu full of dead fish.

I’m sure there are some lovely people around, but at the time I went there were just about every walk of life you can imagine, from the possible illegal immigrants to the Japanese girls taking pictures of their food.  There were business men, contractors, laborers, probably a congressman or two.  And the talk of the tables was the tension in one’s belt.

My choice was the Sampler with shrimp, fish and crab cake, Along with a small Fisherman’s Gumbo.  I could have eaten a bucket of the gumbo alone. Fantastic! Even though they filled it half with rice as filler, what was there was amazing.  Chunks of sausage and scallops and other good things.  The bed of fries were perfectly crunchy under the fried foods.  The crabcake fell apart as I ate it, a good sign that it’s not full of batter.

And the best part is that I’ll come again.. and again.. I’ll have to try some other things on the menu, or not. Don’t take my word for it? Check out the Yelp page:  http://www.yelp.com/biz/fishermans-outlet-los-angeles

And they have their own website: http://www.fishermansoutlet.net/

 

 

Last Night’s City

The city sleeps, somewhere else.

Today’s Art District Foodie Roundup

It may seem like this is an art blog one day and a foodie blog the next.  The reality is that it’s a Kamphey Approved Blog so get used to it.

Today started out beautiful… no… Handsome.  Had me some Handsome Coffee.  A nice dapper man greeted me after a little lady greeted me.  It was nice and welcoming and I feel like I could go there time and time again. That’s the point, be welcoming when someone, anyone comes in.  Make sure they know what they are getting and they’ll come back.

So it wasn’t just coffee.  It was also breakfast because sitting outside of the coffee shop was a food truck.  And then later in the day I went out to a local Brew festival and got a brew tour, where outside there was a row of food trucks.   But before the eats.. there was the tour.  A tour given by first time tour guide, long time brewer, John. He was detail oriented and very nervous. The bartenders apparently usually give the tours but we had the pleasure of getting a delightful brewer give us the tour.  He even showed us his tiny office and lab where he was working on a pickle concoction.

After the tour, on to the eating! More food truck awesomeness.  This time a little Seoul food.  Seoul Sausage.

Here I made the right choice and got the Sausage. Not messing around with anything else.  It’s quite interesting that this photo has a woman blocking the name of the truck but now it reads something odd.  Make Usage.  Earlier this week I saw a restaurant sign with the  R-E-S-T-A all burned out. so the sign just said U-R-A-N-T.  which is a good website name for bad reviews of restaurants.  Urant.com  At the moment that site is under construction but it looks like its been under construction since 1995.

That’s all for today folks.  A food truck tour of the Arts District.  Tomorrow: Chinatown.

Food Truck Virgin

For all the wants in the world there’s no substitute for good hard on the ground research.  But for some reason food trucks are hard to find out on the seas.   There’s carts in Mexico, there’s stands in markets in Barcelona, but no good hearty food trucks.

It was like meeting some random person in a bar.  I walked to get Coffee a few blocks away and there on the corner was a willing and able partner, the Eggslut L.A. truck.  I wasn’t even thinking of breakfast, but I got some. I got some alright.

Today I lost my food truck virginity with an eggslut.  An Egg McMuffin on steroids.  A homemade sausage patty with special sauce, cheese and egg on a brioche bun.  It was good but not great. I’m not sure what great was and that’s what it’s like to be a virgin. There’s nothing to compare with the first time, yet.

 

 

Lunch Launch!

Ate lunch in the shadow of the Space Shuttle Challenger memorial statue.  It was quite a ceremonious time yet banal.  Had the Omrice Bento box available at your local Marukai Market in Downtown L.A.  Hope you enjoyed this episode of Special K’s Food Tour of Little Tokyo also known as Big Tummy in Little Tokyo.

Old news is better than no news

Found this big peaceful man on the side of a scooter store.  I’m sure it’s been around for a while and been blogged and flogged and reposted but I found it today.  I. Me. Saw. It. And I loved it. It smelled as if it were a few blocks from Skid Row.  My brain hurt from the sun. I probably got a tan.  But when I passed by a decrepit parking lot, looked up, to find this thing, it was nice.  I stood a little longer. I even went inside the scooter store. If the art on the wall wasn’t there I would have been long gone but instead there I was standing inside thinking about buying a brand new scooter.  This art doesn’t have anything to do with scooters but I was there thinking about buying a scooter.  No, I didn’t buy a scooter but I am now closer than ever to buying a scooter.  Even Roman Holiday didn’t make me want to buy a scooter. Look at how much fun they had in that film.  It’s considered to have reinvigorated the vespa industry.  But here I am, not thinking about a scooter and bam I see some random art on the wall of a shop.  I would have probably walked in to any store that was there just to give a little love, a little gift of time and my eyes and possibly my wallet.  Just because of proximity.  Can the internet do this?  Is this what the advertising industry does every day?  What would have made me buy that scooter at that moment? Maybe the 18,000 dollar price tag hurt my chances.  maybe it had been a used scooter shot with a weird colored scooter for discount price because it’s gotta go today.  Maybe for 500 dollars? 600.? maybe if they had said look you can pay us 200 now and then 200 for the next four months and it’s yours today.  I would have bought a scooter at that moment.

Are you creating moments for someone to buy something?  everyone sells something.  Make sure you allow your customers to buy something.  Make it special in interesting, surprising, delightful ways.

Surprise and delight your friends.  Surprise and delight your enemies.  Surprise and delight your loved ones.

 

 

My New Mornings

 

 

Every once in a while Kismet strikes and it turns out that all the shit you go through was worth it. All the things you thought you were missing you weren’t.

Now is the best time to begin again, anew, in a new place, in a new time.  This time it’s perfect. Honestly it’s always perfect no matter when.  Just as long as it actually begins.

My mornings are finally coming together.  A roof to sit on, a book to read, a camera to take pictures with,  a city begging for a fresh nubile face.

The roof is a perfect place for the birth of the Gizzard Wizard.  What better place than Little Tokyo?  A little Japanese a little American a whole lot of yumminess. We’ll start small with a little roof top cooking for friends while I work on the SpecialK sauce.

no matter what… I’m here to enjoy… L.A. here I come.

First Deleted Photo of the Year

From last night, here’s a deleted photo wishing you a happ ynew year.