Cheesecake Factory/Brentwood

Well it's been awhile since my my last bolognese experience. This tasting occurred over two weeks ago, before my trip to Durango, CO. Got busy getting ready and never had the time to add this one. This one for me however is easy. My family and I have been going to this Cheesecake Factory in Brentwood for many years. Prior to my getting married to H, my son and I would meet my parents here for dinner a couple of times a month. It was sort of midway between Glendale and the Marina where they lived (not really), and we all liked the food and the atmosphere. I have been having this pasta bolognese for the past ten years at least and it has not changed much. It used to be Penne Bolognese on the menu but recently has been changed to pasta bolognese. You can get whatever pasta you want so the change did not effect me too much. What can I say. This is the baseline standard for bolognese. Pasta always done right, good texture. Sauce adheres to the pasta well and there is a good meaty, somewhat spicy flavor that I always enjoy. Nice chunks of meat and plenty of sauce. Good portion size as well. Amazing? No. Very good? sure, most of time. Good? always. I would venture to say that the taste of the meal has more to do with my mood and taste buds then the way the bolognese is prepared. It appears to be the same every time. safe, reliable, consistent. Just what I want in a bike, a women and my pasta. Rock on Cheesecake, I know that I can always count on you to make my day to day life, well... a little more day to day. Thanks. Bye for now. P.S. I did not have any bolognese on my trip to Arizona and Colorado. Just wasn't in the cards. Maybe on our upcoming trip to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine I can get some out of town bolognese. Maybe even with Lobster! we'll see. Later.

Kristinas Italian Place

Kristinas Italian Place
3409 Overland Ave
Los Angeles, CA
310-836-0891

Met the family last Sunday at Kristinas. Now this is a very funky place on Overland. We have been going here for many, many years. It's in a really crappy strip mall and right next to a laundromat and a dry cleaner. I pass it every time we go there because it is so indescript i still can't find it. Having said that, there is something very homey and familiar to this place for me and I kind of like it. We were about 10 people total and there were only a few other's in the place. Must be more of a local hangout I guess cause I'm not sure how any body else would find this place. We used to go here when my grandmother was around and I always remember this place fondly. It's strange how some really pretty mediocre place takes on a special meaning like that. I have been ordering the Bolognese here forever, and it really hasn't changed. While I have not been happy with the last few bolognes' I have had at other locations, this one is well, mediocore. Not bad, certainly not great. It just seems tired like the restaurant itself. Decent texture to the pasta, thinner pasta then I usually like, but again not bad. Fairly meaty sauce, decent taste. A little spicy but not overpowering. Nothing weird or out of the ordinary, just your basic bolognese. decent chunks of meat and pretty good tasting sauce. I am starting to think that most places don't put a lot of thought into their bolognese, it's not a glamorous dish, probably why I like it. If you are dying for some bolognese, you could do worse then Kristina's, it just won't leave any lasting impression. It does come with a nice salad though and really good bread. and the price for the meal is $10.95, fair in my mind. My family will keep coming back here and I'll keep ordering the bolognese. Good memories are hard to find, so hang in there Kristina. Ride on. J.

Alessio, or a little less so.

Alessio
9725 Reseda Blvd.
Northridge, CA. 91324
818-709-8393

I have received complaints from some of my followers that I have not posted anything lately. This is true as I am getting ready to go to Durango for a week of mountain biking and I had to get everything straight at work. Mission accomplished! Well not make any one wait any longer, I will review 3, yes 3 new bolognes's. I have have gotten a little behind. First we have Alessio, a nice place near our home in the Valley. It's actually in the same mall as our favorite Chinese restaurant, Chi's, so at least we knew how to get there. H has been saying that we need to try this place as she had not been there for awhile. Never did until this blog. First let me apologize for the photo, I need to practice the close ups. This dish came with 5 meatballs!! Is meat getting cheaper or am I not getting real beef? I have decided not to think about it or I will never eat again. One word. Oregano. TOO MUCH OREGANO! in the meatballs. I have never tasted anything like it. H tried the balls and agreed there was an insane amount of Oregano in the meatballs. Made it hard to taste anything else. The sauce was passable, a little runny, somewhat spicy, not horrible, but not great. Did I mention, OREGANO! Pasta was cooked well, good texture. OREGANO! I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to food but I would say the OREGANO completely set the dish off balance. Maybe try again in a little while, but not anytime soon. Next. Thanks. Oh, $10 corkage fee, not bad.

Trader Joes Penne Bolognese

Back again with another offering for the discerning foodie with a taste for Pasta. This Bolognese was actually pretty good. The sauce was indeed meaty and very tasty. Good texture after 3 minutes in the microwave and piping hot. There was a very good meat taste with a fair amount of spicyness. This was very salty however. I when I say it's salty, you know it's salty. Love the ease of use and the fact that you can eat it right out of it's own packaging. Can't remember how much it cost, $3.99 I think, but not bad for a quick Bolognese fix. The portion was adequate, if not particularly generous. There was clearly chunks of meat in the sauce, at least I hope it was meat, and this gave a satisfying taste and it felt good in the mouth. Sounds kindof strange I know but food texture is very important to me. There used to be another pasta and meat sauce that was offered by the Joe and it came in a bag. I have not been able to find it lately at our local TJ's in Encino. I have to check and see if they have it at any of the other's, Though I doubt it. This reminded me of the penne bolognese at CPK which has been a perennial favorite of mine for a long time. I will review that soon as well. Anyway, I would definitely buy this again when we do our salad and entree at TJ's. We go buy the salad of our choice and an entree as well. N usually gets sushi and H, gets all kinds of stuff, not a creature of habit that one. Bigger palate I guess. Might be going to Alisio tonight so I might have another entry on the horizon. Looking forward to past in Arizona and Colorado, though I might regret this as I don's see us eating the finest eateries. All I can do is hope for the best. Spaghetti and meatballs at Denny's? I see it coming. Konichi Wa. J

Bobs Big Boy/ Big mistake

Bobs Big Boy
4211 Riverside Dr.
Burbank, Ca. 91505
818-843-9334

Well first let me say that this location is the original Bobs Big Boy and is a cultural and architectural monument. Still has the Big Boy out front and everything. Very cool place. The service there has always been top notch and the people are very friendly as well. The vibe is 50's cool and they still have car shows there. Definitely brings you back to a simpler and nicer California. At least I think it does as I did not get to Cali and the Valley until 1969. Either way, very nice. I don't have to say anything about the Big Boy burger itself as it is a classic, as is the Pappy Parker Fried Chicken, which I'm not quite sure if they have on the menu anymore, need to look next time. So now...... the pasta. Let me start off by saying that I know full well that you don't go Bobs for pasta. but I was there with Nate and he kind of forced me into it. No Bolognese on the menu, but they did have spaghetti and meatballs. So I went for it. Four huge meatballs, very generous. Not too bad either. a little flavor, good texture, certainly not the worst I've ever had. The pasta itself was cooked well and had good texture also, very important as I hate overly or under cooked pasta. I can make pasta with the right texture so everybody else damn well better as well. But the main part of the dish and the focus of this blog is of course the Bolognese, or in this case, the sauce. Industrial. Best I can say. Right out of a 5 gallon can. Some chunks of tomatoes but with that fake tomato flavor. Bad, lifeless, tasteless. Knew it going in but had to do it for the sake of the cause. I sacrificed so you don' have to. If you are desperate for pasta and meat, get a can of Beefaroni, (which I will be reviewing here soon.) Cheaper, faster and way better. The Cherry Coke was great though. Peace out. J

Well, it's been a few days now since I posted here. I have been to two sausage places, Brat Brothers ( on Ventura in the Valley) and Wurstkutche ( downtown LA on 3rd street) in the last three days. Both were good and pretty interesting, though obviously not Bolognese. I will not review them here because, well they are not pasta. I have to have some rules and guidelines. As you can seen my next pasta was with the old king of sauce, Ragu. This Ragu has meat in the sauce, or so says the label. What can I say about Ragu with meat. Not much really. you either love this stuff or you don't. I do, nobody else I know does. Though my son will eat it, with hot sauce. He tried to get me to try it with hot sauce and I refused. It's my blog and I'll eat what I want to! This sauce was very thin, but did permeate the spaghetti pretty well. It also holds up well the following day and days beyond. Spaghetti does not go to waste around here. This is probably as low as I will go, though I will review two of my all time favorites, Beefaroni and Beef Ravioli from Chef Boy R Dee. It's pasta and it's meat, ( I think), and so I will review it. Ragu is quick, easy and frankly not as bad as most people think it is. Till next time. Ciao!

My first Bolognese

Well I figured I might as well get started, so my wonderful wife made some spaghetti bolognese for me. she followed a recipe from the New Basics cook book, with some modifictaions She was not happy with it for a few reasons. H felt that the sauce did not adhere to the spaghetti as well as she liked. She also felt that the meat I bought at the store was too lean. I however thought it was pretty good, though not the best that she has made. H stated that she thought it would be better tomorrow, we'll see. I am debating whether or not to get into to much detail regarding the details of the bolognese, or just give my impressions of the taste. We'll see as I go along. This is of course not any bolognese you can try unless you come to my home and that's unlikely. I will use this bolognese as a yardstick for future tastings. I have also decided to include spaghetti and any other meat that might added such as meatballs, etc. Until next time.

After discussing this blog with my wife, I have decided to start fresh and only review pasta bolognese that I eat from here on. No bolognese from memory. I have also decided that I will use this forum to rant about anything else I feel like. I will however do my best to tie my rants to some sort of pasta posting. Need to stay focused. Until next time.

Initial offering

Inspired by my sister in law, I am going to write a food blog. She is extremely knowledgeable about food. I don't know squat. I do however know what I like, and I like Spaghetti Bolognese. I like just about any pasta bolognese and will write about all that I encounter. Here in my hometown of Los Angeles, and everywhere that I travel. I strongly doubt this will have interest to anyone but myself, but at least I will have a record of where I like to go. Important as my ever decreasing memory fades. Stay tuned.