Jamaican Me Hungry

This is a review of Natraliart in LA and Jamaican food in general. The need for this came when my co-worker said she’d never eaten Jamaican food. You mean you’ve never had jerk chicken? Crazy, right?

I made sure to order some classics and highlight what they do better than anyone else. Obviously, the jerk seasoning can’t be beat in Jamaica. Also… you need to try ackee with some kind of salt fish. Here we had cod. Plantains are a must, as well as some good greens. Throw in a Jamaican beef patty and it’s a complete meal. Oh, but don’t forget to wash it down with some ginger beer.

Enjoy the pictures and always remember to try different cuisines! Oh, and they do a good job here… especially with the plantains, oxtails and jerk chicken. IMG_4555IMG_4553IMG_4549IMG_4545

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Amandine Review (Los Angeles)

No, this is not by any means a full review of what Amandine does. I can’t do that since I’ve never been there, but I can tell a lot about what they from the four or five dishes we ordered via delivery.

Here’s what I know.

They don’t know what bread to filling ratio is. As you can see in all of the pictures below (and above) there is way too much bread with far too little in between. This might not be an issue if the bread was better or even toasted, but that’s not the case.

This leads to overwhelming sense of blandness.

The egg salad had some nice, potent flavor but there weren’t many other high-notes when it comes to flavor in the meal. The salad dressing was far too caustic and the béchamel fell flat, or was just lost in the bread.

So, remember how important it is when selecting bread for a sandwich. It can impact everything and throw off the balance of the dish in a major way.

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50 Shades of Food Reviews

First of all, I apologize for the title. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea, but I need to take responsibility for my actions… so it’s not going anywhere! But, to bring a little more clarity, this is more like 3-5 shades of food reviews.

You might know us as the team who brought you the Hungry & Fit blog, which covers food, fitness, and trying to create a healthy lifestyle for different kinds of folks. You might not. Either way, think of this blog as the bastard child of our first child.

What’s that mean? Well, to get to the point, it means that we have written over 500 or so restaurant reviews, if you’d call them that. The thing is… they’re shared over different platforms. Why? Because they’re all meant to serve a different purpose, and not, to get us more views… although we never mind that consequence.

If you see us post something about food on Instagram, we probably loved it, but if you read the caption you’ll know for sure.. If you see us post something about food on Twitter, we probably hated it and want to shame whoever made it. (Okay, maybe that’s extreme.) Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. are all NOT a part of our little food network.

The Hungry & Fit blog is where we publish our legitimate restaurant reviews. They typically have pictures. They’re in-depth. They’re intelligently written from the point of view of a critic, even though we’re not professionals. When we review a restaurant, we order differently. We’ll generally choose one dish and let the server choose the other. We’ll do that for appetizers, entrees, and dessert. We’ll get their signature drinks as well. We will give them a fair and fighting chance to show us what they can do.

The Hangry Life blog is a vehicle we use (and plan to use more) to well… be hangry, kind of… sort of. (Who gets that Worst Cooks in America reference?) I wouldn’t say we use it for rants, but we post our more critical reviews here. In fact, I wouldn’t even call them reviews. We basically highlight a more significant theme in food that we experience and try to… educate people with it. We also use it to try to get a message across to help a restaurant or eatery that might need some help, whether they want it or not.

The Yelp account has nearly 500 reviews and this platform is used to help people using Yelp to find the right place to eat when they’re traveling or curious. We don’t write anything long or emotional on it. We, more or less, use a template in order to address certain issues that might attract or defer possible customers, based on our experience and observations.

And with that, hopefully, you have a better idea about what to expect. Why is this relevant? Because I’m about to write a review about Amandine Patisserie in the Santa Monica/West LA area. I always debate which platform is the correct choice for each review and this one will as all others go on Yelp, but it will also go on here because they have a major flaw in their execution of something they do a lot!

Stay hangry!

Casting Call for Dog Lovers

We might not normally post something along these lines, but we wanted to give any of our followers a cool opportunity to maximize a possible dog adoption effort that they have in mind.

The letter below is from a casting agent, so we can’t take any credit for it, but please feel free to take advantage of this!

Hello Dog Lovers!!

If you or anyone you know (in Southern California) are planning to adopt a dog in the next few months … LET US HELP with our expert and a second season TV show called FINDING FIDO!

The show is hosted by the award winning dog photographer and now dog expert, Seth Casteel (www.SethCasteel.com), who’s book “Underwater Dogs” is a New York Best Seller!  (yes, you will get a photo shoot with your new dog afterwards!!)

Since 2007 Seth has helped thousands of dogs get adopted by capturing their personalities in photographs and through this work he has honed the skills to perfectly match people and their environments with the perfect dog!

We are looking for families, singles and couples who are ready to adopt a new dog in order to follow their journey and help pair them with the perfect pet! This is an incredibly heartfelt and emotional show that is helping dogs and people fall in love and place rescue and shelter dogs in forever homes!

I have included our fliers below in hopes that you can share them to your FB and your friends, if you yourself aren’t currently seeking FIDO.

LETS HELP GET SOME PUPS ADOPTED!!

Please reply here or to email on flier with your name / contact info /  why you are ready to adopt this summer!

Thank you so much and all the best!