Tutti Frutti ~ 950 East Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91106 ~ (626) 793-3662

While watching a tv show that was all about hot dogs, there was a particular segment that caught my attention. In that segment, a Colombian-born baseball player demonstrated how to put together a Colombian hot dog. Needless to say, the ingredients were a surprising choice and ever since then, I’ve wanted to try one, but couldn’t find any place that made them. Thanks to Jonathan Gold, it turns out that they sell them at Tutti Frutti in Pasadena. I bet you’re really curious now as to what exactly is a Colombian hot dog.

Simply, it’s a Hebrew National hot dog tucked with ham and mozzarella cheese into a bun with raw onion, spackled with crushed pineapple, sprinkled with crushed potato chips and finished with a three-squeeze-bottle lattice of catsup, mustard and mayonnaise. You’re either cringing or entranced right about now. According to Jonathan Gold, “It is impossible to eat the thing without smearing condiments on your nose, but it isn’t bad – the pineapple serves the same basic sweet-sour function as pickle relish, and even the crushed potato chips make a certain kind of textural sense.”

Once I knew where to go, I headed off to Tutti Frutti with my iron stomach and even brought a couple of friends with me. Walking into Tutti Frutti, it was more of a fruit salad, yogurt and smoothie place rather than a harbinger of this extreme hot dog, but there it was on the menu. Before ordering the hot dog, I got side tracked by something else, the Tutti Frutti Fruit Salad and decided to start with that instead. Who says you can’t have dessert first?

What was interesting about the Tutti Frutti were its ingredients which were seasonal fruit topped with sweet cream, frozen yogurt, cheese, coconut and blackberry sauce. Can you guess which specific ingredient gave me pause? Yes, it was the cheese. It seemed an odd choice, but when speaking to the owners who were Colombian, cheese in their fruit salad is quite common in their country. You know what? It works. The saltiness of the cheese balanced well with the sweetness of the other ingredients while the tartness of the blackberry sauce added a complementary flavor dimension. In short, the Tutti Frutti was fun to eat.

We also ordered a couple of Colombian drinks to try. The Postobon Apple Flavored Soda tasted apple-y and fizzy, although a little sweet for my taste. On the other hand, the Pony Malta drink definitely wasn’t sweet at all, but was too thick and malty for me. A couple of sips and I was done.

Now it was time for the main event, the Colombian hot dog. When I first saw it, I was just in awe, because I had no idea where to start. There was just so much to it. I honestly wished for a knife and fork because I could already feel the ketchup-mayo-mustard smeared all over my mouth and nose. Heck, if Jonathan Gold could just bite it into, I could to and I did and yes, it was quite messy.

At one point, I just developed a strategy where I would take a bite out of the top part of the hot dog, leaving a lower ledge of hot dog and bread. That way, I could at least have some control over the condiment chaos and than I’d bite the lower part of the hot dog and just repeat. So what does a hot dog with all these interesting ingredients taste like?

With each bite, you taste sour, salty and sweet with both creamy, firm and crisp textures. It was definitely quite an experience. I couldn’t even finish it. It was quite a good size dog, but I think it also had to do with the TuttiFruitti Fruit Salad I had earlier in the meal. Overall, at least I can say that I had a Colombian hot dog, but in the end, I just found the plethora of ingredients a bit overwhelming. I prefer my dog to be a little more basic – mustard, onions, hot dog and bun, but if you’re willing to see what all the fuss was about, than definitely pay a visit to Tutti Frutti.

http://www.tuttifruttila.com/

If you’re into ethnic food, check out the Pleasure Palate blog for more tasty discoveries!

Nana & Naa ~ 4248 W Century Blvd. Inglewood, CA 90304 ~ (310) 674-8052

Little Belize  ~ 217 Nutwood Avenue Inglewood, CA 90301 ~ (310) 674-0696

Ever since I had read Man Bites World’s post on his Ghanaian dining experience at Nana & Naa, I’ve been wanting to check out his delicious find and with Saaris, a Nigerian restaurant close by, some foodie friends and I thought we’d do a back to back African dining day of it. As you can probably tell from the title of this blog entry, the best laid plans of mice and men, etc., etc., but I’ll have to get into that later.

When it comes to African food, let alone Ghanaian food, I hadn’t a clue. Other than reading Man Bites World’s post, I didn’t do any other additional research, before going on this culinary jaunt. Sometimes, there’s something to be said for just experiencing without having to think too much about the ins and outs or ups and downs about the food you’re going to partake in; however, if you’d like to learn more about Ghanaian food, you can click here and click here and even here for more info.

However, I didn’t go completely uninformed about how things worked at Nana & Naa. I already knew that the market was inside the building and the restaurant part which consisted of tables and metal chairs covered by tenting was behind the storefront. I also knew that getting to the back of the restaurant meant walking through the kitchen and what delicious aromas we inhaled as we made our way to the back.

Once we sat down, our waitress asked how we heard about them. Once we mentioned Noah and Man Bites World, their eyes lit up. Given how Noah was so open to their food, I think they knew we’d be the same way. With no set menu, what we ended up ordered consisted of what was cooking in their kitchen and with 5 of us, we were ready to sample it all. In fact, my group ended up sharing 5 dishes and that didn’t include the fufu and banku.

Before I get into the food, I have to mention this popular Ghanaian malt drink called Malta Hatuey that we tried. Wow, that drink was thick. One sip felt like it coated the inside of your mouth. It had an interesting flavor. Of course, the malt was there, but it also tasted a little like black licorice. I’m a red vine kind of girl myself, so this isn’t a drink I’d get again. I just thought I’d mention it in case any of you would like to experience it for yourself.

As for the food, it’s hard for me to pinpoint what spices or herbs were used. The food tasted unlike anything I’ve ever had before. Nothing I had was spicy, but everything was seasoned well and overall really flavorful. We started with the Deep Fried Tilapia on a Bed of Spinach served with Yam and Egg. The yams were a little bit dry, but the fish, fresh off the frying pan, was nice and crispy. The spinach was definitely mixed with other ingredients and at the time, I was thinking tomatoes and something nutty perhaps, but I wasn’t sure. After doing some online research, I’m pretty sure that the spinach that came with the fish is referred to as “Palava Sauce.” You can check out variations of this recipe at The Global Gourmet and Home Foods Ghana.

The next dish to arrive was a Tilapia on a Bed of Black-Eyed Peas Served with Plantains and Egg. Again, the fish was crispy. The fried plantains had a nice sweetness to them and those black-eyes beans were hearty, meaty and with a little kick to them. This dish is referred to as Red-Red. Some sources I read referred to the Bean Stew as Red-Red or the plantains themselves as Red-Red. Regardless, this is a dish where the beans and plantains seem to be forever partnered.
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I’ve never had Honduran cuisine before so when I read a review awhile back about a Honduran restaurant, called El Katracho located in Sherman Oaks, I decided to check it out for myself. I’m just going to talk about the food itself, but if you’d like to read more about Honduran Cuisine in general, click here!

One thing to mention right away is that if you’re bringing a large group who will be ordering a la carte off the menu, expect slower service. Although I made reservations for 14 ahead of time, having to wait on so many people did result in a service that while friendly and gracious, was also a little spotty. You may want to go with a smaller group or set up a pre-set menu with El Katracho to move things along a little quicker.

As my group was settling in and looking over the menu, we were served baskets of tortilla chips that weren’t your standard chips and salsa combo. Instead, a light tomato/chile sauce was poured over the chips and than topped with cotija cheese. Those chips were quite tasty and a great starter.

Some people also went ahead ordered drinks while trying to decide what to order. A couple of mango margaritas, made with a fresh mango puree topped with little Honduran flags, soon came out and were enjoyed by the recipients who asked for them.

Orders were finally placed and eventually food started coming out in spurts. Now when I was reading that review earlier, one thing caught my attention and it was in reference to a street food that Hondurans are known for called baleadas. Basically, a baleada is a flour tortilla, that is folded and filled with refried mashed beans, quesillo or Parmesan cheese and sour cream. This is basically a no-frills baleada. There are baleadas that can have any number of fillings depending on your preference from eggs to sausage to hot sauce to avocado and probably much more.

I ordered a baleada as a side dish to my main entree which was a shrimp and conch soup. My baleada arrived first and I definitely enjoyed it. I enjoyed the thickness of the tortilla itself and I liked the earthiness of the beans mixed with the saltiness of the cheese and the slight sweetness of the sour cream. I could easily just have had a few of the baleadas, a margarita and called it night, but I still had a big bowl of soup coming my way.

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For those of you don’t know already, Pollo Campero is a Guatemalan fried chicken chain and for this particular write-up, I’m focusing specifically on the location in Long Beach.

When Pollo Campero opened its first location in Los Angeles, I heard that lines were around the block. When I heard news like that, my curiosity was definitely piqued, but time passed by and I soon forgot about until I started working in Long Beach and found out there was a Pollo Campero location down the street from me. Fate was definitely working on my side, so I decided to check it out for lunch one afternoon.

I walked through the doors, up to the counter and after a quick glance at the menu, I ordered a three piece fried chicken with rice and yucca fries. While I was waiting, I loaded up on some salsas at their salsa bar. When the plate was finally placed in front of me, I have to say that it looked good and it smelled good, but did it taste good? The answer was a resounding YES in big capital letters.

The skin was wonderful and there was just enough batter to form a “cracker crust”. What I meant by that is when I pulled the skin from and off the chicken meat, it seemed wafer-thin and crispy like a cracker. The chicken itself was tender and juicy and very well seasoned, which doesn’t translate to being spicy, just full of flavor. A little peppery. A little bit of a kick. All of which made me one happy chicken eater.
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La Bamba Pupuseria ~ 14620 Hawthorne Blvd. at W 147th St. ~ Hawthorne