Flight to India : Flight news and information

For awhile now, I’ve been hearing from friends about how good Pollo a la Brasa’s Peruvian Chicken was. Though it took awhile, I finally made it there with said friends

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Pollo ala Brasa Chicken: So Good, Few Words Are Needed

Congratulations to Alicia Brandt for Winning the Menuism Giveaway! Last month, as part of a Menuism sponsorship, 3 lucky members from my Meetup Dining Group, Pleasure Palate , got to join me for a free Dine LA dining experience at Gorbals. Owned by Top Chef Season 2 Winner, Ilan Hall, Gorbals is known for combining Jewish and Scottish food sensibilities. For those who you have never been to Gorbals before, you should know that it’s inside the historic Alexandria Hotel, so don’t look for it streetside

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Menuism Sponsored Dinner at Gorbals + GIVEAWAY

Thanks to an invitation from Dan Silberstein of Drink:Eat:Play Events , I got to be a Cupcake Judge for the 2010 Cupcake Challenge where 24 Cupcakeries offered 40 different cupcakes to win the hearts (and votes) of all the attendees. Having done the LA Chevy Cupcake Tour last December where 4 whole cupcakes almost did me in, I definitely wasn’t sure how I was going to survive 40 mini ones and in the end, I actually only sampled 38. My method was simply to take one bite, write down some comments to myself and then move on to the next one

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Things I Learned From Being a Cupcake Judge at the Drink:Eat:Play Cupcake Challenge

We all knew it had to happen sometime. With the proliferation of food trucks popping up left and right and having some pretty darn good dim sum restaurants in San Gabriel Valley, it was only a matter of time that those two thing would combine to form the Dim Sum Food Truck, owned and operated by Alex Chu. In February, I was part of a group of bloggers and other food truck owners who got invited to sample some of the tasty offerings from Alex’s new venture

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Introducing…The Dim Sum Food Truck

I read a bunch of books over the last 3-4 months.  Many of them were unremarkable, others were pretty good, and three were really outstanding. Here is a quick write up on the three outstanding ones.

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Three Awesome Books I Read Recently

When it comes to tacos, Los Angeles County is abound with taco shops a plenty that sell these tortilla treasures with all sorts of fillings, from carne asada to chicken, from carnitas to potato and so much more. But for one day, it was all about the Fish Taco and the journey that members of my dining group took from Long Beach to Los Angeles in search of Fish Taco Greatness.

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6 Stop Fish Taco Crawl from Long Beach to LA

Last November, I was lucky to be invited to the Private Grand Opening of Bouchon and although it was a fun experience, I definitely wanted to go back and a sit down meal. Finally, a few months a later, I went with friends for a Sunday lunch

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Bouchon is Too Subtle for My Taste Buds

If you’re in the LA area or even visiting the LA area and are looking for unique culinary experiences, please check out my dining group, Pleasure Palate, by clicking here! While there’s a variety of events currently on the calendar, I’d like to highlight some below. Are you a lover of international cuisine, but also want value for your dining dollars, then there are two events happening this week that definitely may be of interest. Photo Credit to Gastronomy Blog February 25 – Traditional Brazilian Meal at Rio de Brasil For only $21 (incl tax and tip), you’ll get a chance to experience the national dish of Brazil in the form of the Feijoada.

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Upcoming February Pleasure Palate Events

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Chinese New Year’s Brunch Giveaway from the Pasadena Langham Hotel! After counting up all the various entries and running them through Random.org , congrats go to Miriam Dema for being the winner. She and a guest will be enjoying a delicious brunch courtesy of the Pasadena Langham Hotel.

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Winner Announced for Chinese New Year Brunch at the Pasadena Langham Hotel

Here is a question from a Breaking Free reader that I though others might find useful (my response below)… Brian, I would like some feedback on a business idea… I’m thinking about a 3D scanning and 3D printing service with a website to solicit business. A 3D scanner is around $3,000, and a 3D printer is about $15,000, so startup costs would be a little “high” I guess.  The scanner can scan an existing object, and convert it to a CAD file.  Then, with that file, someone could “print” a 3D object in ABS plastic, even if the part was complicated.  It is an efficient way to see/test a prototype idea. Not sure how much market there is for something like that.  The client would need to ship an object to me to scan, and then I would probably be required to send the object back with an electronic CAD file.  And if I offered the “printing” service, I would send the ABS model back to them, all for a fee.  This is kind of a new thing developed in the last couple of years, and could save some companies money in their product development.  The startup cost probably keeps the small entrepreneur out of that market.  But, I could spend that much if I thought I could recoup my investment, and eventually make a profit

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Reader Question: I Would Like Some Feedback On A Business Idea…

This entry is part 18 of 18 in the series UniversityTutor.com Things have been growing nicely at my business, UniversityTutor.com , in the last few months. Here are a few graphs that I have auto-generated each week to see what’s going on.  I really like the idea of having a “dashboard” for your business like this to help you see the cycles and spot anomalies early on.  If you can’t measure it then you don’t know how close you are getting to your goal, so I recommend having something like this for your business if you don’t already.  These I custom programmed but you could have your programmer do something similar or make them in Google Analytics or Excel. These show daily totals for a bunch of different metrics that I track, and a cumulative total for number of paying subscribers

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Behind The Scenes Numbers From UniversityTutor.com (Revenue & Expenses)

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Wine 102 Class and Lunch Giveaway from San Antonio Winery! After counting up all the various entries and running them through Random.org , a toast goes to Dao Nguyen (bluepupae) for being the winner. She and a guest will be enjoying a wonderful afternoon experiencing good wine and food at the San Antonio Winery on 02/21

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Winner Announced for Wine 102 Class and Lunch Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation from PR Rep, Britta Franson of Weber Shandwick to try out the Chinese New Year’s Brunch at the Terrace in the Pasadena Langham Hotel. My previous visits have included enjoying their Chocolate Tea at the Lobby Lounge and a Media Dinner at the Dining Room to check out Chef Michael Voltaggio’s new menu, but their brunch at the Terrace was something I had yet to experience

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Chinese New Year’s Brunch at the Terrace in the Pasadena Langham Hotel + GIVEAWAY!

When it comes to choosing a restaurant to bring my dining group to for a meal, there are a lot of restaurants listed in my to go list. At times, it may take several months, even a year before I cross a restaurant off that list; however, as soon as I finished reading an LA Times Review about Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se, I knew I had to go there. Who could resist a restaurant that specializes in Mumbai Street Food?

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Marvelous Mumbai Vegetarian Street Food at Mumbai Ki Galliyon Se

Last month, I was invited by PR Rep, Dienna D’Olimpio of Barbara Bishop and Associations , on behalf of the San Antonio Winery to attend a Wine 101 Class and Food Pairing Lunch at their downtown Los Angeles location. Although I’ve visited San Antonio on my own in the past and more recently, I went to last year’s Boutique Beer and Food Pairing , I’ve never taken one of their classes. Truth be told, I’m actually not much of a wine drinker, but I’m always interested in learning more about both food and beverages in general.

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Wine 101 Tasting and Food Pairing at San Antonio Winery and Prize GIVEAWAY!

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Living Abroad Quick post to let you know I’ve decided to move from Buenos Aires back to the bay area (where I grew up).  I’ll be moving in a few days.

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I’m Moving To The San Francisco Bay Area!

Sunday, January 24, 2010 I want to try an experiment.  I’m only going to write one post this week, the one you are reading right now, but I will be updating it each night until next Sunday.  It will be a seven night long post. “Why?” I’m attracted to the idea because it is counter-intuitive.  I don’t think

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One Week Journal

Several months ago, I was invited to join a group that wanted to promote more women directors, writers, and female-oriented films in Hollywood.  I signed up, and later day I received an email that I was blocked from the site because the administrators decided that they wanted the site to just be for women bloggers. 

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Ideology and Realism

Last December, I was invited by PR Rep, Dan Cox , to attend the Grand Opening Party for Ixtapa Cantina in Old Town Pasadena. Owner Jack Huang seems to be building a Pasadena restaurant empire because he also owns Bar Celona and Villa Sorriso and they’re all on Colorado Boulevard. This was my first time visiting this space since I’ve never been to either Fred’s Cantina or Moose McGillicuddy’s, which were previous tenants

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Grand Opening Party for Ixtapa Cantina & Pop Up Bar by Névé Ice in Bar Celona

I actually first read about Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron from the Teenage Gluster blog . At the time, I was actually more enthralled at the wall paintings than the food.

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Cemitas Party at Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron