Sawtelle Blvd.

…And She Said Wow

Madame Matisse ~ 3536 W Sunset Blvd.~Silverlake~90026 (323) 662-4862

Ever since reading Klaus Kinski’s depraved auto-biography, we’ve had an obsession with the incredible, edible egg. They make their way onto our plate about three times a week and whenever we cross into an ethnic eatery serving egg atop anything we head straight for the ovum like we bore a squiggly tail (like when we spotted Kachapouri, a type of egg-topped Georgian/Russian pizza at Big Mama’s and Papa’s Pizzeria in Downtown).

One recent bleary-eyed and regretful Sunday morning at cornerside Madame Matisse in Silverlake, we skipped the french toast with orange syrup, Belgian waffles, flat iron steak, and broiled salmon (albethem both served with eggs) and dove straight into the omelettes. Madame Matisse cooks up a good one as tasted in their “famous” Omlette Normandie, a fiendish egg-xample of henapple egg-stasy chock-full of shrimp, brie, and bell pepper under a layer of salsa. Eggs dominate much of the brunch menu, in rancheros and benedict stylees and the like.

Total control freaks that we are, Create Your Own Omelette seemed the best option, since one can get as many items as they please at no extra cost ($7.95). We threw goat cheese, onion, bell pepper, spinach, mushroom, and avocado into our mix with about 43 cups of coffee.

Normally omlettes come with stringy flecks of what you desire found inside, but Madame Matisse’s appear as though the ingredients were thrown into a sizzling pan by a 15-year old with the munchies, with three eggs cooked around them and rolled into a burrito-shaped Bob Marley joint. Our giant chunks of veggies keep thier crunch and flavor among vast pools of cheese landmining the soft eggs in a massive mash of grilled and pan-fried pleasure. Ingredients were everywhere; bursting through the skin of the egg, arriving as big as one’s lower arm practically, delivered fast, and with no limit to the savory surprises in each new bite.

Madame Matisse is a small, bare-bones boho cafe which serves well-regarded lunches and dinners as well. It is a cute enough place with a great brunch, but the streetside dining is double-edged, as the traffic on Sunset passing you by can be a bummer. Still, for this level of eggstravaganza, we’ll be back.

A rowdy Rockies fan started shit in the second tier, which got a responding LA fan tossed out by security. Rousing jeers and chants about this hometown injustice resonated with everyone, resulting in the Rockies fan’s ejection as well. Then the Dodgers kicked Colorado’s sorry azzes, again.

Santa Monica Blvd. & Wellesley Ave.

Santa Monica Blvd. & South Bundy Dr.

Venice Blvd. & Clyde Ave.

La Paloma means the dove, an apt name for the diminutive spot “wo-manned” by two adorable mamacitas with a serious command of the grill. The tacos at La Paloma are jam-packed with grilled meats. Seriously jam-packed to the point where it spills all over your plate and you’re left needing a tenedor to shovel it all down home.

These fat tacos give the jaw a mean workout in their mo’ meatty meattiness. The asada is well grilled, hot but leaving the undoubtable taste of steak permeating the palatte. Some of the meat was fatty, adding to the macular aerobics, but overall the asada is flavorful and semi-juicy enough to be a good taco.

The pastor had more of a curry flavor, instead of leaving us with the grilled-flavor of its source. It was not very tender, but had a squiggly texture that played out nicely in firm, chewy bites. The heap of fresh salsa and lime juice compliments everything well, though I felt the slightly thick tortillas steal a little sunshine from the main ingredients.

Still, La Paloma serves up enough meat in a tiny $1 taco to last you the entire day’s construction job. We will return!

Echo Park, Los Angeles

Our Mascot.

Fire pon’ Disneyland! We paid a visit to Anacrime last Saturday to wish Disneyland a happy 50th, and in between feeling unjustly persecuted for smoking, we stopped by Disney’s California Adventure, the newish theme park across from the Magic Kingdom.

DCA is a strangely but satisfactorily condensed mini-playground in tribute to our golden state. The Twilight Zone ride is pretty ass-kicking and everyone must rush to try Soarin’ Over California, where you are hovering over an IMAX-esque screen showing the bounty of California, feet swinging like you’re Boba Fett.

Okay, the real reason we showed up was for free booze. DCA was having one of its Food and Wine Weekend with tastings (one of ours featured Gallo, makers of Thunderbird), plus plentiful plates of stuffed quail and gorgonzola risotto with complexity and flavor, among other treats cooked live by a quasi-celeb chef.

Later, we descended upon the Magic Kingdom to find Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Haunted Mansion, Pinnochio, and Star Tours the same beloved thrills, and we actually were realy feeling the new Space Mountain, though the loss of the glowing giant orange golf ball is tragic…

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12201 Santa Monica Blvd. (S. Bundy Dr. & Amherst Ave.) West Los Angeles 90025 310-481-9995

Campos doesn’t necessarily look authentic or original in its strip mall façade, but inside a fiercely independent spirit is embodied in its Baja Fresh-sized space dominated by pictures of Mexican revolutionaries. The tacos ($1.75) are unique too, in that they are corn tortilla, hand-shredded wonders absolutely bursting with meat. They are giant for such authentic tacos. The asada is some of the best we’ve sampled, with a complex mix of spices, while carnitas and al pastor are good, but a little too flavorful in their stewy blends, if that is possible. Tex-Mex hard-shells are also great and at the ready.

Breakfast burritos lack a little zing, while tortas, gorditas and burritos, among other items on their giant menu, are satisfyingly huge and savory. Shrimp and beef fajitas look awesome, and are one of the few items over $5. Campos might not be the greatest in West L.A., but it is worth a bite for these portions at these prices. Check out their take-away menus for terrific money-saving coupons.

La Cienega Ave. & Cadillac Ave.

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Taco paid a visit to the geeks and gadgets of the E3 Convention, the world’s largest gathering of video-game nuts where everyone was buzzing about how lame the Playstation 3 seemed, Nintendo’s incredible wireless Wii, and the C-grade models who populated every booth.

Among the highlights, both cool and absurd, was the Desperate Housewives game (where one can digitally slut out with a hunky neighbor), God of War II, Crysis-the most realistic first person shooter we’ve ever seen-, a Yakuza game, Splinter Cell Double Agent, and X-Box 360′s Grand Theft Auto rip-off Saint’s Row, which admittedly has better graphics than its inspiration.

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