LA Beer Week 2013: Smog City Brewing Co

 
Continuing our journey on beer week, next week stopped by
Smog City Brewing Co
1901 Del Amo Blvd Ste. B
Torrance, CA 90501

Well known for their coffee porter, Smog City is quickly becoming one of the up and coming local brewers. We were delighted that they had such a wide variety of beers on tap. Samples are $2-$3 and $6 for a pint. They had 10 beers total when we visited them. Our favorite was the Amarilla Gorilla IPA. Your typical hoppy, mildly bitter west coast IPA. The beer that caught us by surprise was the weird beer. It was fruity and complex. We didn't know what to think of it. We also tried one of their sour beers, it was peach flavor. Not like the one we had at Strand. This one had it's tart notes without having a fermented, cheesy, nutty aroma.Their LA Beer Week beer is the Hive five, so make sure you give that a try and let us know how you liked Smog City.

Very interesting beers, definitely gotta try them all. Just make sure you pace yourself. Some of those beers are delicious but high slight higher in alcohol content. Thanks for checking us out, make sure to subscribe on youtube for more videos.

Our photos:
 

LA Beer Week 2013: Strand Brewing

So it's beer week in Los Angeles, and the nice folks at LABW created this week to celebrate and promote the wonderful establishments in the LA & OC area. We've made a few video to celebrate this occasion.

Our first stop was Strand Brewing Co.

Address: 23520 Telo Ave, Torrance, CA 90505

Phone:(310) 517-090

Not the easiest place to find, but if you follow our guide on the video, you shouldn't have a
problem! They had 4 on tap, I failed to mention the last on the video. The rest of their line
up is available in bottles.

1. Light house, summer ale, exactly what you would crave from a summery day at the
beach or something. It light and easy to drink.

2. 24th Street Pale ale, strong notes of the hops. Nice amber color, very balanced pale ale.

3. Atticus IPA, this one was more fruity than hoppy. Not very bitter, so if you like IPA,
but can't handle high IBU beers, this one is perfect.

4. "Cherry Blossom" Saison/farmhouse ale, very strong nutty, cheesy flavors. I can taste
every hour that's been aged. It's a sour beer. Not the best I've had, but I don't drink much
saison.

Hope you enjoy our contribution to LA beer week. Make sure to subscribe for more videos. 
Until next time cheers!

Everyday Gourmands in Ktown part 3 of 3

S Bar
Category: Bars
3240 Wilshire Blvd Ste 401
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Neighborhood: Koreatown

Sam-Cha! Round 3, we made our way to S Bar. Kicking it up a level on that drinking game. It's not a easy place to find. You gotta find the building, valet or find street parking. Find the elevator, find which floor it's on, and find your way to the right entrance that leads to the bar. Luckily we had our trusty Ktown ambassadors with us. Finding the S Bar was a breeze.

The breakdown
S bar is not your typical Korean Dive bar. Feels more up scaled. Loud music, flashing lights, and most importantly....a full bar. Most dive bars in Ktown only service beer and soju. Gotta come to a place like this if you feel like get wasted.

Some tips:
I was told that this place is cougar town on week nights, and the young people come out during the weekends. If you want to socialize, don't stay at the booths, grab a seat at the bar.

Got a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label, it was only $80, super cheap for bottle service. Soda and juices are complimentary. S Bar is one of those legit bar, so you know we gotta get a ride on the Seoul Train. It's pretty much a array of soju bombs with amazing spectacles. Being round 3 and all. One of our [Ktown] ambassadors is feeling the effects of alcohol. But we go HAM, that's just what we do. So we took care of the bill and headed out to Sa-cha! Round 4.

Only exception, we never made it to Round 4. And instead we went to....

BCD Tofu House 

3575 Wilshire Blvd 

Los Angeles, CA 90010 

Neighborhood: Koreatown

Our final stop of the night. Not trying to say this is where all the drunk people going in Ktown, but this is where drunk people go. It's like the Ktown Denny's. Open 24 hours a day, serves comfort food that you can eat pretty much anytime of the day, mediocre service, and reasonably priced. At about $9 per dish, you get ton of Ban-chan aka apps and your selection of tofu soup with 8-10 types of flavor. Like beef, pork, kimchi, seafood, and so on. Rice and raw egg included. Ok it's a slightly better deal than Denny's. Asians are cheap, and if you want Asians to come to your spot after a night of drinking in Hollywood or Koreatown, you give the people what they want. Cheap and comforting food. 

BCD is one of those places that needs no intro. If you are a local in LA, you know what's up. 

Hope you all enjoyed our Ktown adventures. Make sure you subscribe to us on youtube if you wish to see more. Big thanks to our lovely Ktown ambassadors Ana, Ben, and Nare.

Everyday Gourmands in Ktown part 2

3317 W 6th St
Los Angeles, CA 90020
Neighborhood: Koreatown

(213) 487-9100

dansungsausa.com

So this was ee cha! Round 2! Of our little Ktown adventure. Just in case you didn't know, Dan Sung Sa is one of the OG places in Koreatown. My ktown friend told me that his parents used to come here when they were going out back in the dates(college days!). And my friend is in his 30s!

First thing you will notice is their open kitchen in the middle of the room. It's where they grill all their yummy Korean bar food like chicken gizzards, hearts, and feet! Sounds good doesn't it? To most Asian, bar food is about all the cheap little parts that people usually throw away. It's amazing how this place transforms chicken inners into delicacies.But they do have more normal stuff like chicken meat, wings, and beef on skewers.

We got one of my friend's favorite, tteokbokki, Deokbokki , dukbokki, however it's spelled. Basically rice cake in Korean chili sauce. Very popular street vendor dish in Korean. The ones that are usually served are the modernized version from the Korean American war. There's a whole story about why they put the ramen noodles, spam, and cheese, but I'm not going to bored you with that. Try google, I heard it's quite effective.

Second dish we got was Cheong po mook moo chim, or just simply mook moo chim. Mung bean noodle salad in English. Very refreshing, the taste and texture of the mung bean noodles is pretty much like savory jello. Very interesting if you have never had it.

Lastly, our Ktown ambassadors wanted our cameraman Sam to try the chicken feet. Hoping that he would like it; he took a bit and pretty much gave it to me. Guess it's not for everyone. If you've never had their grill chicken feet, it's pretty much bones wrapped with gelatinous texture meat(aka skin). And these particular ones have a smokey taste and of course that Korean chili paste on top. I swear they put that sh*t on everything. It's actually quite an enjoyable dish for the rest of us. So we had no problem finishing it up.

What's ktown without some drinking games? We got the liquor flowing, asked for double the beer, busted off the cups, and let the games begin! First off is Soju bottle cap flicking game aka Huang Fei Hong! So our Ktown ambassador told us that this game supposedly got it's name from the Chinese Robin-hood hero, Huang Fei Hong from the Qing dynasty. Basically when you twist it end of the bottle cap, making it look like a Chinese pig tail, and your goal is to flick it off. You can either have the person who flicks it off drink a shot of soju, or whomever flicks it off makes the 2 people next to him or her drink. We chose option 2, it's more exciting that way.

Second game is called Titanic, pretty much fill the beer cup halfway, insert the soju shot glass into the beer, make sure it's barely flowing on the beer. Take turns pouring soju into the shot glass without sinking it. Whomever sinks it, drinks it. It's a terrible game, unless the goal is to get completely wasted. As a result of the game, we went over $100 on our bill, which means SERVICE TIME! The server asked if we wanted food or alcohol. Of course, we went for the booze. The word service actually refers to complimentary food or drinks. It's a Korean custom(at least in Ktown LA) to give free food or drinks when you have ordered a lot. The more money you spend, the more free stuff you get!

After a few more rounds of Titanic, we finished up and headed to round 3.

Tip: Valet parking is $2, but street parking is available if you come early enough.

Slaters 50/50 in Pasadena

61 N Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91103
Neighborhood: Pasadena
(626) 765-9700

We went to check out the Slater's special burger for July. The 100% ground bacon burger called the "The 'merica."In honor of our independence month. It's a bacon on bacon action. Definitely an unique experience. However, don't expect to this burger to make it to the main menu anytime soon. We thought it was a bit too salty for our taste. The ground bacon just isn't the same as a nice piece of bacon stripe. Next time, gonna have to stick with their classic 50/50 setup. We hope you enjoyed our video. Make sure to subscribe for more!

Dog Haus Biergarten in Pasadena

93 E Green St
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 683-0808

This is such a cool place. When you hear biergarten, it automatically makes you think GERMAN. German sausages, German beers, and bench seats where you can socialize with your mates. Well, it's kinda like that but a whole lot more here.

Dog Haus is unique because they put a different twist to your traditional german wurst or sausage. They also have interesting burgers on Hawaiian style bun! I think the tater tots does it for me. With their cool selection of interesting sauces, it's definitely the place to taste something new and exciting.

When it comes to beer, the German stuff is always on tap. But if you are a craft beer drinker like myself, they also got you covered. Last time we came here, they had a speakeasy XPA in the bottle for $4. It's not cheap, but its definitely not expensive at a place like this. On tap, they got your lagunitas IPA and one of my favorite Rasputin American imperial stout! If beer isn't your thing, dont worry. They got a full bar to make you something else.

The inside is like a sports bar. It was great to watch the Laker game here once. But the the bench tables outside is where it's at. Just like how they do it at the Oktoberfest places, get some food, grab beer and drink with your buddies on the good ol bench seats. It's not pretentious, and just enough to not seem super ghetto. It is after all, old town Pasadena AMIRITE?

We did a video to document this last visit, check out it in the link below. Make sure to subscribe on youtube if you want to see more.