We’re finally settling in for the night after a huge day (flying into LAX early this morning and trying not to pass out all day) and I really couldn’t be happier to be in my tracky-dacks and lazily listening to LA outside my window. The massive 14 hour flight was a complete drain and I’m very much glad it’s over. Luckily, we have to wait another 3 months now for another long flight like that.
Our main mission for today was simple; try to gorge on as much dirty, greasy, fat American food as we could find and make it to tonight without passing out to fight jetlag. I can proudly say that we succeeded on both counts!
We started off our horrific culinary journey at a little place called ‘The Original Pantry Kitchen’. This magnificent diner is located in Downtown LA and boasts a huge 88 years of 7 days a week, 24 hours a day nonstop service. They serve everything that an all-time American diner should serve, including a chocolate milkshake the size of my head. It was all greasy, sloppy, cheesy, absolutely amazing and HUGE!
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Original Pantry Burger
We started with a ‘Pantry burger’ which is pretty much a handmade beef patty on 2 slices of pan fried bread dripping with oil, a tiny amount of salad and some hand cut chips on the side. Freaking amazing.
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Ham & Cheese Omelette
This picture shows our next meal consisting of a cheesy omelette with large chunks of fried ham and more cheese… with fried potatoes on the side. Also, in case that wasn’t enough oil, it was also served with some more pan fried oily bread. Again, so freaking good!
After a long afternoon of still trying not to pass out we then found our next culinary adventure at a little bar/restaurant called ‘Water Grill’. This fantastic little find was actually not what I expected from America. Most of what we ate was fairly fresh and healthy, although to remind us that we are still in the US they served very impressive sized meals. Let me warn you… the following pictures are ALL ENTREE SIZED!!
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Olde Salt Oysters
This picture was our starter consisting of half a dozen ‘Olde Salt’ oysters. We were a little dubious about getting American oysters since we lived in Adelaide for so long and were able to get some of the world’s best oysters locally. but, we were pleasantly surprised as they were mild in flavour yet delicious.
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Water Grill entrees
These were our mains (which were actually entrees on the menu!). We had grilled swordfish, crunchy battered fish, handcut (once steamed, twice fried) chips and a side of roasted root veg. Need I say more?
Congratulations America! Well played…. Well played. I just can’t wait to see what the US has to offer for the rest of our journey.
Well, I’m out for a well-earned sleep. We’ll be pretty boring tomorrow so we won’t have much to say but we should be going to Disney Land on Friday (YAY!!).
Till next time…Chrissy
Hi All, Shaun here -
Just a quick note on a couple of beers i tried while at Water Grill. My first taste of proper American microbrews and i was very impressed. I started with a Palomino Pale Ale from Bootleggers Brewery (Bootleggers Brewery) which had a nice sweet taste and virtually no bitterness on the back of the palate. Then i had a Blue Star American Pale Wheat ale (Blue Star Brewery), whic was the best wheat beer i have ever had. I’m not normally a fan of wheat beers but this one was a really cloudy brew with a slight bitterness and vitrually no overpowering wheat taste. Planning on going out to Venice Ale House at some stage which has a heap more small independent US beers on tap so keen to get involved in them now
