Food

Feb022018

Carmo (New Orleans, LA)

An important note: Fit had been here before and was excited to return because of their amazing vegetarian selection. After our meal, she did say that it was much (much) better the last time she went, and that they probably had somewhat of an off-night. Taking her word, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.

All that hype, unfortunately, raised my expectations and I was looking forward to something magnificent. Carmo was an interesting find in the beignet & crawfish capital of the country: a vegan-friendly but still meat-serving funky joint serving meals from around the world. I was immediately skeptical when I looked at the menu. How could someone prepare and serve dishes from cuisines across the entire globe? I love the CONCEPT of traveling around the world during dinner, but could the kitchen execute?

Jan302018

Sqirl: LA Restaurant Review

Recently, we launched one of our most exciting projects of the year: LA’s Must-Visit Restaurants of 2018. What does this mean exactly and why is it so exciting? Well…it means instead of ordering Indian for the fifth week in a row, we are going to try new places! Each week, from this list that you’ll find in the post linked above, we are going to try a highly-rated (from someone or another) restaurant in Los Angeles and then tell you, our beloved readers, about it! Our first stop in this epic adventure was Sqirl, a “contemporary breakfast and lunch” as they word it.

It was rather a chance occasion that we did this; my brother’s girlfriend’s cousin (I know, it’s a mouthful) was in town and they were all going to breakfast at Sqirl. We got an invite and said, why not! Sqirl is just on the border of Silver Lake and East Hollywood and boy do you notice. No parking and plenty of hipsters abound! We parked a few blocks away and hiked down one of Silver Lake’s many mountain-like hills to a little cafe. The cafe is “hip” with plenty of hipsters both in line and cooking, serving, and/or cashiering. If you don’t know the exact address, you’ll find Sqirl by the at-least 15-person wait line (and that’s if you’re lucky and/or smart and go at 8:30am) outside. The format of food-getting is wait in a line to get to the counter, order your food, and hope for a table. Like I said, it’s a little place, so there aren’t many of them. The smartest thing to do is split your party into table-grabbers and food-orderers.

Jan282018

LA’s Must-Visit Restaurants of 2018

As we wrap up the last weekend of the first month in the year, we consider what else does 2018 have in store for us? Well, how about you switch roles, sit in the driver’s seat and ask yourself, what do we have in store for 2018? You’ve followed us on our move from New York City to Boulder, Colorado. (That road-trip, with a long stop in Mason City, Iowa, is when we started this blog!) After two years of eating all the delicious food in Boulder, we packed the animals in the car and headed to Los Angeles.

While we’ve been in LA for about three and a half years, we realized that there are so many top-notch restaurants that we haven’t been to yet! With a move coming up at the end of the year, we decided to show some restraint, avoid going back to our favorite eateries for the 10th time and make an epic list of LA’s must-visit restaurants of 2018! Every week of 2018, we’re going to try one new restaurant on the list, try to take some amazing photos for you (if the lighting is right) and review our experience there!

Jan272018

Not-Your-Nonna’s Arrabbiata Sauce Recipe

Sugo all’arrabbiata. The angriest sauce in all of Italian cuisine. It might not be as angry as your nonna when you don’t listen to her, but it can pack quite a punch. Hailing from the Lazio region (think Rome) of Italia, like my ancestors, you’d think that it’d be blasphemy for me to even consider altering the thousand-year old recipe, but… I can’t help myself.

You see, this is a simple sauce that doesn’t quite hit the spice level of fra diavolo, but compared to commercial Italian pasta sauces in American grocery stores, it’ll make your nose run a bit. Typically, its made from striking the perfect balance of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and red chiles (most use red chili flake), but we’re really going off the walls here and using a much different source of heat.

No, we’re not talking about Calabrian chili oil; we wouldn’t dare use ingredients from Southern Italia. We’d rather take a near 7,000 mile plane from Rome to Jakarta, to pick up some SAMBAL! I hope we haven’t lost you, yet, because this is about to get tasty.

Jan262018

The SEVEN Secrets about Thai Food!

Full Disclosure: we’re not Thai. Our 21&Me/Ancestry.com DNA tests and family trees show zero traces of any Asian heritage, but we do love their food! We love it so much, that we were willing to shell out top dollar to go on a “secret” food-tour of LA’s (Hollywood’s) Thai Town led by one of the world’s leading ambassadors for Thai cuisine, Jet Tila.

If you watch Food Network, you know who Jet is. If you love cooking Asian food at home, you might be aware that he had one of the top-selling cookbooks of the year. (We have our signed copy of 101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die on our coffee table.) What you might not know about Jet is the fact that he is the United States’ Official Food Ambassador to Thailand, and a member of the Thai family that opened the first Thai restaurants in the US. So, Jet is legit.

Hungry & Jet

Jan242018

The Impossible Burger

Intriguing. When you think about it, that isn’t a word that you would normally associate with food. You might think, ‘wow, this is intriguing’ at first, but after some thought, you’d find a better-suited word. Sometimes for better and often for worse, we have a tendency to give more credit than is due when it comes to food. Just think about the hysteria that erupts when well-known foods (such as poke and ramen) are brought to areas where the population aren’t familiar with them. Hysteria.

Then, there are the few times that you really are truly intrigued by what you’re eating. The thought of it is so complex, so mesmerizing that you can’t help but learn more about it. And no, we’re not talking about a sushirito here (aka a sushi burrito) or any other nonsensical scheme to be different, cool, or earn money fast–we’re talking about the true gems out there.

Jan182018

BizEatz: Helping the Traveling Professional Eat Healthy

Here at Hungry & Fit, we are always encouraging and promoting companies that seek to make the world a healthier place. That’s why we are featuring BizEatz, a company focused on helping business travelers eat healthy. A good portion of the workforce, especially in corporate, travel frequently. That means unstable and unreliable meal sources that usually end up not being very healthy. BizEatz recognized this problem and sought out a way to improve traveling professionals’ experience of eating on the move.

Meet BizEatz. A platform that connects healthy food to professionals, whichever city they might be in. I actually partook in the product a few months ago when I traveled and it worked great for me. Instead of indulging on french fries and grilled cheese, I had nutritious meals at my disposal. Before I go on and blab about how it works, I’ll let the Founder himself, Adrian Lai, take over. Hungry & Fit interview Adrian about his company, BizEatz. Enjoy!

Jan162018

No-Bake Sticky Protein Bars

How are everyone’s goals progressing? Are we still working hard? Even if you slip up every now and then, don’t let go of the dream! You’re going to mess up, it happens, it’s better to accept that than be blindsided down the road. However, you need to set yourself up for success as much as possible. That means providing yourself with good snacks and good workouts. In this post, I shared some recipe and workout ideas. Go check them out!

It’s important to get enough protein as you’re chasing goals, whether they be losing weight or gaining muscle. I just discovered this super easy no-bake protein bar recipe from Bodybuilding.com. Yep, that’s right–no baking involved. I changed the recipe somewhat to fit my own needs as you’ll see below. These no-bake protein bars are delicious and I accidentally ate three yesterday (whoops). And yeah, there is no baking involved so this recipe takes as long as it takes you to mix all this things together. You can use any protein powder you want and I used Red Velvet protein powder which is why it’s all red!

Dec212017

Chocolate Chip Meringues

A vivid memory for me as a kid is getting a tin of these fluffy white things (probably from Trader Joes) and delighting to find that they were crunchy, but more importantly–delicious! I’m kind of scared to think back on how many I would eat in one sitting. Yikes. Well, fast forward to today and I now know what they are! Meringues. Beautiful, mind-bending, mouth-watering meringues. That amazing dessert that feels at the same time you’re both eating air and crunching into a godly snack. I’ve never made meringues before. If you would’ve asked me, I thought that the recipe must be really difficult. Let’s face it: I was intimidated! Such a fancy schmancy dessert and who was I to presume to try to do it?

That is, until I saw Skinnytaste’s instagram post of her “Black and White Chocolate Chip Clouds” and realized that maybe the recipe wasn’t over my head. I had a good friend’s cookie bake coming up and I said to myself, “You know what! I’m going to try it!” And I did. And it was a success! I made chocolate chip meringues and I cannot wait to make them again. And guess what? These are a healthy alternative to the normal heavy cookie. Now that I feel comfortable with the recipe, I want to really make them my own. I’m not sure what the hardest part was (the recipe is so easy)–separating the egg whites or waiting for them to be cooked. Yeah, that’s the difficulty level we’re talking here, folks. Just look at the recipe below!

Dec142017

Ken’s House of Pancakes Sumo Challenge

We’re quick to admit that food challenges are a little wrong. They’re gluttonous and certainly don’t help with a fair distribution of food, but there’s something about them that draws you in. While most people would be far more likely to observe someone taking part of the challenge, Hungry loves to step up to the plate when he gets the chance. On our recent trip to Hawaii, a friend from the island who now lives in LA, told us that we had to go to Ken’s House of Pancakes. Why? Well, apparently, the Rock spent a fair amount of time in Hilo during his youth, and he would often destroy some epic pancake platter while there.