TIP – Original Tommy’s Tuesdays
Got busy with the holidays so I haven’t posted this in a while, but here’s this week’s Original Tommy’s Tuesdays location. For those who aren’t aware, the local chiliburger chain turns 65 next year and has been selecting a different location to celebrate the anniversary every Tuesday. If you go to the chosen Tommy’s on that day, anytime between 10am and 10pm, and say a secret password? Your Tommyburger is only 65¢. Your indigestion will be free. Hah!
Again, please be aware that the location and password changes every week. This deal will be good for one day only.
DEC. 28 LOCATION: 7606 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga
PASSWORD: “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
TIP – One FREE Tommy Burger For Every Year
On May 15, 1946, Tom Koulax opened a chili burger and hot dog stand on the northeast corner of Beverly and Rampart Boulevards. The key to Original Tommy’s initial success was its proximity to Belmont High School; the local student body was the core of his original clientele and employees. Now expanded to hundreds of locations and thousands of loyal customers, the original stand on Beverly is still going stronger than ever.
So just a little heads up… according to Original Tommy’s Facebook status today, you might wanna stop by 2575 Beverly Boulevard for lunch today and say a few magic words:
“Today is the Shack’s 64th birthday. At the Shack only from 12 noon till 1 PM we will give free chiliburgers to the first 64 people that say Happy 64th Birthday. The big party is next year when the Shack turns 65, it will be BIG.”
WINNER – The Chosen Stomach Has Been Chosen!
Well, we found a winner to represent us in the Six Taste Bizarre Food Challenge. It’s a shame we could only pick one person but they might be offering the challenge again in the future if there’s enough interest so if you’d like to purchase tickets check out their site and get on their mailing list.
Trust me, the competition was fierce… and a little stomach churning for me. Deciding between the entries was seriously rough. You people are insane! In the end we had narrowed it down to two entrants, and we finally just picked the person who submitted first between them.
Her name is… Courtney Chai, who despite her girlish exterior is actually a hardcore devourer of everything from cobra blood to ant larvae tacos to snake skin to tarantulas… and trust me, she showed us plenty of proof.
“My dad is Chinese from Hong Kong, and my mom is a southern belle from Georgia. I grew up eating frogs legs, chicken feet, and thousand year old egg, as well as scrapple and grits. My backgrounds definitely gave me a taste for adventure. I have traveled around the world eating bizarre foods, including, among others (1) tarantula in Cambodia, (2) grasshopper tacos in Mexico and Washington D.C., (3) ant larvae in Mexico City, (3) veal brains at the French Laundry in Napa, (4) jellyfish in Hong Kong, and (5) snails in Portugal, Spain, and France.
“A few years ago I took a trip to Vietnam where I ate an entire snake in a small village outside of Hanoi. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was directed to a large cage of live snakes where I was asked to pick out my dinner. Then they took the live snake inside, drained its blood into a carafe of wine, and pulled out the snake’s still-beating heart to be swallowed whole along with a glass of snake blood wine. Following this aperitif, I was fed an eight course meal of snake soup, snake stir fried with vegetables, fried snake skin, snake fried rice, snake bone congee, snake eggrolls, etc.
“Although I am slight (a mere 5 feet, two inches, and 105 pounds), I can also eat a lot. I have been known in my group of friends to eat two dinners in a row. Accordingly, I am confident that I could clean my plate at every station at the Bizarre Food Challenge.”
Okay kiddo… you’re on! MAKE US PROUD! Meanwhile, if your stomachs are up for it, dear readers, some of our runners up are featured after the jump. :)
HELP – This Pup Needs A Home!
Food trucks are so trendy in Los Angeles right now… and while we definitely do enjoy the occasional Kogi spicy pork slider, at heart we tend to be more old school and sentimental here at HiddenLA. So a big thanks to our friends over at Mapping Los Angeles for cluing us in to today’s LA Times article about the ongoing struggle of iconic food stand Tail O The Pup, which has apparently been gathering dust, covered up and sitting on wheels in a Torrance warehouse for four years now, waiting for someone to give the registered Los Angeles landmark a home.
CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW 
(more…)
CONTEST – Are you THE CHOSEN STOMACH???
Do you have a hearty appetite for the obscure? Have you a hankering to devour delicacies that would send most people running? When you see bugs in the yard, do you wonder how they would taste with a little salt and pepper? Well then, you actually just sound kinda weird… but hey, if you’re ready to clean your plate no matter what odd ethnic delicacies are piled upon it, WE NEED YOU! (Scroll down for full details.) Please send a video link, photo or well-written narrative to contest@hiddenLA.com with “BIZARRE” in the subject header and convince us that you are THE CHOSEN STOMACH!!! Contest submissions will be accepted until midnight on Tuesday, April 13th.
HiddenLA is looking for someone with a strong constitution to represent us in Six Taste Tours’ upcoming Bizarre Food Tour Challenge!!! The event begins on April 17th at 10:30am in San Gabriel Square and tickets are normally $40. The challenge is sold out, but they’ve saved ONE SEAT for a HiddenLA fan (YOU?) and we gotta pick someone who will make us proud. No lightweights need apply! The culinary delights you’ll be introduced to aren’t for the faint of tummy!!!
Eat outside the box and join Six Taste on a Bizarre Food Tour Challenge. Taking place in San Gabriel Valley: The New Chinatown, participants will get to try several ‘bizarre’ dishes made by some of the best Chinese cooks in Greater Los Angeles County. Sample jellyfish, frog ovaries, crocodile, stinky tofu and more – this is an opportunity to expand your palate and challenge preconceived notions of what belongs on your plate. Participants will be challenged to clean their plate at every stop. Those that finish will get a Six Taste certificate of achievement and a place on our website hall of fame.
Eat outside the box and join Six Taste on a Bizarre Food Tour Challenge. Taking place in San Gabriel Valley: The New Chinatown, participants will get to try several ‘bizarre’ dishes made by some of the best Chinese cooks in Greater Los Angeles County. Sample jellyfish, frog ovaries, crocodile, stinky tofu and more – this is an opportunity to expand your palate and challenge preconceived notions of what belongs on your plate. Participants will be challenged to clean their plate at every stop. Those that finish will get a Six Taste certificate of achievement and a place on our website hall of fame.
NICE PEOPLE RULE! And so does a good fish taco.
I’m someone who firmly believes that kind behavior should be rewarded and mean people should be kicked to the curb. There’s a misconception about Los Angeles that people here are all self-absorbed jerks who are only out to get each other… and while there were times in my life where I bought that script, I’ve learned over the decades that I was wrong. There are bad people everywhere in the world, and when all is said and done I’ve found the majority of Angelenos to be solid, hard-working, good people who are often far warmer to strangers than you’ll find in many other cities large and small.
I’ve explained many times that the “hidden” in HiddenLA isn’t about being elitist, but rather it’s referring to the heart of this place that many people are oblivious to. In my mind, the good people of Los Angeles are a very large part of that heart.
Sooo, let me tell you a little story. Tonight I was driving through Los Feliz and realized my blood sugar was a little low and I needed something quick. I passed Best Fish Taco in Ensenada, thinking to myself that I’d seen it mentioned many times on HiddenLA’s Foodie page on Facebook. Thanks to too much quality time in San Diego I’m a Baja Mexican food snob, but I decided to put my fish taco elitism aside and give it a try because you guys have yet to steer me wrong. I may have a Team Rubio’s t-shirt in a drawer somewhere, but I wanted to finally taste for myself if these tacos lived up to the hype.
I parked across the street and walked inside. It wasn’t until the customer in front of me stepped away from paying that I noticed the sign saying “CASH ONLY” and realized I had none, just my well-worn check card. I apologized and began to walk away, but then I heard a voice say, “Hey!” a few times. I turned around and the man behind the register motioned me forward. He was owner Joseph Cordova.
RIP – Bill Binder, Philippe’s Patriarch
William “Bill” Binder (seen above left, with sons Richard and John circa 1982), who for years ran Philippe’s, the Los Angeles eating institution famous for its sawdust-covered floors and trademark French dip sandwiches, has died. He was 94.
Binder, who retired in 1985, died Jan. 28 of natural causes at a care facility in Pasadena, said his son John, who runs Philippe’s with his brother, Richard.
“He had a real mild temperament; he always tried to treat everybody with respect,” John Binder said. “He had a very, very deep religious belief. He felt we were just so blessed to have the business.” (more…)
HANDSHAKE – We love you, North Dakota!
According to Google Analytics, the only state in all of America that has yet to visit HiddenLA even *once* is North Dakota. Seriously! Even though we did a nice big feature on one of their native sons! Sigh.
Feeling a bit sad and rejected with this news, naturally the only solution was to turn to the internet for possible answers. It was tough admitting that all I really knew about North Dakota was to stay away from wood chippers. It seemed a good time to learn a bit about the commonalities we share so that perhaps we might have a better chance of forging a bond of web friendship. (I mean, how tough could it be… the word Dakota MEANS “allies” in the Sioux language, for Christ’s sake, so they’ve gotta be super friendly people. Right?)
After a bit of research it’s easy to see why North Dakota might be a bit intimidated by Los Angeles, though… the entire state contains nearly ONE THIRD the population of the San Fernando Valley alone. Wow.
Well, we may be big city folk, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about stuff that’s important to our fellow Americans, though. We do! So after a bit of research, here are a few things I’ve come up with… an olive leaf of sorts. An itemized list with links after the jump.
EVENT – Suckin’ up mudbugs at the Long Beach Crawfish Festival
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1st
What: 16th Annual Long Beach Crawfish Festival (Note: The Newport Beach Lobsterfest is on Sunday as well, but it appears to be sold out.)
Where: Rainbow Lagoon Park, Long Beach (562) 495-5959
When: Noon-11pm
Price: Various tickets available. For $2 off door admission, go to their web site and click on the crawdad.
Details: After scathing reviews for running out of beignets, beer and crawfish last year, the promoters of the Long Beach Crawfish Festival are determined to prove themselves on Saturday. Not only is Yelp now their official sponsor, but the promoter used the site to say the following to potential attendees: “Last year attendance 3X (tripled) in number 4 hours prior to the festival. This was not anticipated and we do acknowledge that there were longer lines, we did run out of beer, and we were low on Live Crawfish. The Crawfish are flown in Live the day of the festival and adjustments could not be made within hours based on the influx of sales… We have accommodated for the additional Live Crawfish to be flown in. We have extensive beer reserves stationed onsite for immediate use. There are two entrances. Bars have been expanded with extensive signage in place. Overall the festival has been expanded to accommodate last year’s attendance and more giving a fun festival experience to all that attend. We thank all those that make Long Beach Crawfish Festival the largest Crawfish Festival outside of Louisiana — right here in Southern California. “
Their official promotional blurb: “The 16th Annual Long Beach Crawfish Festival serves mouth-watering Cajun Crawfish dinners! Delicious Louisiana-style crawfish prepared to spicy perfection by chefs from Bristol Farms. Crawfish feasts include succulent red baby potatoes, buttery corn on the cob and a special remoulade dipping sauce. Dance to live Cajun, Zydeco and New Orleans bands. Also, giant food court, beach bars and a children’s area.”
