Howlin' Ray's.

Being a huge follower of the Food Network, recently I've been seeing a lot of craze over Nashville style hot chicken and I started to wonder what it was. Is it like chicken buffalo sauce? How spicy is it? What makes it special to Tennessee? Apparently, it's a type of chicken different than any type of chicken I've ever had. It's a type of fried chicken that is marinated in a water based blend of spicy seasoning, floured, and fried. It is finally sauced with a paste that is spiced with cayenne pepper. It is usually served on bread as a sandwich, but can also be eaten on its own. And pickles are the perfect thing to combine the flavor of the chicken with. It has been served in Nashville for generations since the 1930s and has recently been gaining more popularity.

A lot of the notoriety of hot chicken came from a restaurant in Nashville called Hattie B's Hot Chicken, and seeing as though I'm not going there any time soon, I made it my mission to find a hot chicken spot in LA. Even KFC has introduced a hot chicken special, but I knew I could get more authentic than that.

That's when I found Howlin' Ray's in LA's Chinatown. Howlin' Ray's is owned and operated by a husband and wife team, Johnny and Amanda, who are passionate about getting the best blend of spices to make top tier hot chicken. When I went to the restaurant, Amanda was there taking customer orders and Johnny was in the kitchen leading a team of chefs to make the chicken. I really enjoyed that they were a part of my experience, it made it seem more personal and authentic.

Howlin' Ray's has 6 different types of sauces for the chicken, each at a different level of spiciness. I'm usually a person who can handle her spicy foods, but when I asked Amanda which sauce she would recommend to me, she said to go with the Medium sauce. I was worried it wouldn't be that spicy, but let me tell you guys, my mouth was on fire eating it! In a totally good way. I ordered the sandwich, which had the chicken, slaw, comeback sauce, and pickles. The comeback sauce was another great accompaniment to the chicken and I used it to dip my crinkle cut fries in too. It didn't hurt also that they kept giving me as many pickle chips as I wanted.

It was to die for! The chicken was perfectly crispy, the slaw gave it the perfect element of crunch, and the sauce and pickles just brought it all home. The portions are also really large. I feel really bad about this, but I couldn't finish my sandwich. Sometimes I sit and think about the parts I left and hate myself for not finishing it haha.

The line can get pretty long at Howlin' Ray's, even on a weekday, which is when I went. I waited in line for about 30 minutes, but I've heard this is actually a short time. So if you're going to give it a try, try to go before or after the lunch rush. It's totally worth any wait you have though!

All'acqua.

Have you ever gone to a Dodger game or a concert at the Greek Theater and came out starving and wondering where you can grab a bite? All'acqua is the perfect place! It's located in the up and coming Atwater Village on the Glendale Boulevard strip, and its Italian name, All'acqua translates to Atwater.

The menu offers Pan-Italian dishes including wood fired pizzas and house made pastas. I went with my girl friend and we love to order a few things from the menu and share them all. It's a great way to experience different things restaurants offer. All'acqua also has a large variety Californian and Italian wines that make this place also great for date nights.

We started off with grilled country bread, which was drizzled with garlic and olive oil. This bread is one of the best breads I've eaten at a restaurant! It isn't complimentary, but for $3, it's a good appetizer.

Next, we ordered the charred asparagus egg fried in bread crumbs and topped with shaved Parmesan cheese. This was by far my favorite item on the menu! The asparagus gives the dish a fresh taste and the cheese and bread crumbs give it a comfort food feel. I couldn't get enough of this.

I'm a huge pasta lover, in fact it's probably my favorite thing to eat, so I had to try one of the house made pasta dishes. We decided to try the spinach and mushroom pasta. The sauce on the pasta was really light, which was nice since we were eating so much. You can taste the freshness of the pasta, which was cooked perfectly al dente.

All the wood fired pizzas on the menu looked so delicious. My girl friend is a little picky with what she eats, so we had to compromise by ordering the prosciutto and arugula pizza. The pizza was fairly large and since we ordered so much food, I was only able to eat one slice. That one slice, however, was amazing. Somehow cooking pizza in a wood fired oven gives it a certain flavor that can't be beat.

We couldn't end the meal without dessert, of course, so we ordered the Bombolini. They were Italian donut holes covered in a Nutella sauce and paired with vanilla gelato. The gelato was super creamy and the juxtaposition of it with the warm donut holes was perefection. It's the most popular dessert on All'acqua's menu, so it's a must have!

Next time you are looking for a night out at a local trendy spot, check out All'acqua in Atwater Village and make a night of it by visiting one of the many surrounding bars after your dinner! 

Thanksgiving Leftover Monster Sandwich.

I'm hoping all my followers had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed the leftovers as much as I did! This year I poked up all my leftovers and made a colossal turkey day sandwich that makes you wish Thanksgiving was every day. 

When I say this sandwich is a colossal monster, I'm not kidding. I made this a triple decker sandwich so I could fit all my favorite side dishes into it. 

I used oat nut bread and toasted it a bit. You can use your favorite kind of bread, but I find grainy breads like wheat bread go better with the flavors in the rest of the sandwich. 

I like warm sandwiches so I heated everything up, including the turkey. To the sandwich, I added stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry mayo, which I made by mixing leftover cranberry sauce with some mayonnaise. All the recipes for these sides can be found on my post on last year's Thanksgiving: http://www.taltalsays.com/2014/11/thanksgiving.html?m=1. 

Here's how I assembled my sandwich...

1. Mix 1/4 cup of mayonnaise with 1 tablespoon of cranberry sauce. 

2. Toast 3 pieces of desired bread. Spread the cranberry mayonnaise on each slice. 

3. Warm the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. 

4. Start assembling! To the first slice of bread, spread first the stuffing, then the mashed potatoes, and then some turkey. 

5. Top this with the second slice of bread and repeat step 4. Top that with the last slice of bread. 

Voila!