Poke N Roll.

I love sushi and when the poke craze started happening all over LA, I had to ask...what is poke? Pronounced "po-kay", it is a Hawaiian raw seafood salad served as an appetizer. Poke N Roll took poke to a whole new level by fusing it with Japanese sushi to create...sushi bowls! I had to try this so I paid a visit to Poke N Roll this week, and let me just say, it's a delicious gem and since it's located in Glendale, I think I'll be a frequent patron.

The menu offers sushi bowls, which includes white or brown rice with your choice of 2 fish, crab, 1 choice of sauce like ponzu, spicy mayo, and eel sauce, and 3 toppings like tempura flakes, avocado, cucumbers, and smelt eggs. Extras can always be added for an additional cost, but the amount of food that comes in the bowl is a lot and enough to keep you full. They also offer sushi salads where you can replace the rice with lettuce and they can always make your selections into a roll if you like tradition.

I watched the chef cut up a giant tuna and place it in my bowl...it doesn't get fresher than that!

All the different ingredients you can choose from. 

Our yummy bowls. Like I said, it's a lot of food.

Cute little Pop figurines all over the place and Polaroid photos of happy customers. 

Barley Salad.

The other day I came home from work and I was starving. Trying to keep a healthy diet, I didn't want to order out so I looked around my pantry for ingredients to quickly make something. I found a bag of barley and also a few different vegetables in my refrigerator so I decided to make a salad. For a makeshift recipe that I just put together, it turned out really good!

Ingredients:

• A handful of cherry red tomatoes
• A handful of small yellow heirloom tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1/2 an avocado 
• 3/4 can of kidney beans
• 1 cup of barley
• crumbled feta
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon honey
• salt
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

1. Cook the barley according to packaged directions. Usually, boil 1.5 cups of water to every cup of barley and add the barley when boiling. Put heat on low and let absorb for 30 minutes.

2. While the barley is cooking, wash and cut all the vegetables and strain and wash the kidney beans. Keep in mind, you can use any number of vegetables in the salad, these are just the ones I had in the fridge. 

3. When the barley has cooked, drain and let it cool.

4. To make the dressing, whisk the honey and vinegars. Add in olive oil and salt and whisk.

5. Mix the barley, vegetables, and kidney beans.

6. Top with crumbled feta.

Bouquets of Bacon!

Girls love getting big bouquets of roses...and what do guys love? Bacon roses! Come to think of it, everyone loves bacon, so everyone should love these treats that are both appealing to the eyes and to the taste buds. These turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself...

Roll and pop in the oven.

Crisp and tasty.

Add bacon to artificial bouquet.




Voila!