Tudor House Restaurant

I took Owen's grandma, Nannie, here, because she loves her British food and she can't cook, and this is one of the better places to go (along with enjoying a nice sunny day close to the ocean). We were one of two occupied tables at this place, on a weekday early afternoon, but I think this place gets pretty crowded on the weekends, for people wanting afternoon tea. The one waitress was extremely British, and nice, but it was a lot for her to handle when other people started arriving to eat. Nannie, of course, has to have:

...her tea, she always has to have tea or coffee. I snapped this because of the nice tea set that came with her tea, that creamer is just too awesome.

And here's a cup of Nannie's tea (no sugar, only cream), she chose orange pekoe. After checking out the extensive menu (everything looked so tempting! Fish and chips were strongly calling my name...) I decided upon something I've never had before.

I got bangers and mash, with a choice of beans as my side. This was so delicious - I have never had sausages like this - all perfectly burnished on the outside, the grind of meat on the inside was very smooth, no nubbins of fat (yeah I know, gross, but that's sausage for you), it was just all around tasty. The mash was really nice as well, and the gravy was something to behold. The British definitely know their gravy. Beans were nothing to scream home about but added a nice flavor contrast to the meat and potatoes.

Nannie got the same thing, bangers and mash, but wanted mushy peas as her side. I just think the name is hilarious - "mushy peas"? I think mushy peas need to talk to their marketing department, maybe they can jazz their name up to something less...baby food sounding. Well, mushy peas are very descriptive of what they are - when I saw them on Nannie's plate it was pretty much what I expected. Didn't try them, but didn't really want to try them either. Nannie was quite content with her food, (which was great because she otherwise, I've only seen her eat grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas...seriously.)

Tudor House is pretty cool because there's also a store attached to the restaurant, where you can buy British goods, plus they sell pastries and pies, which are awesome to get for later. British candy is also awesome (Cadbury's makes some decent stuff, try a "Flake" bar!)

Tudor House Restaurant (and store)
1403 2nd St
Santa Monica, CA 90401-2301
(310) 451-4107
www.thetudorhouse.com

Uncle Darrows

In the spirit of saving money, I've been using those restaurant.com coupons here and there, as I did a few posts ago. I didn't feel like cooking one night, so we decided to use a coupon I had for Uncle Darrows, a small place right off of Lincoln Blvd, and fairly close to Owen's workplace.

We walked in, and it was basically a ghost town - the only person there was the cashier/cook. I guess this place isn't too hopping on a weeknight. We were pretty straightforward with our orders, as they didn't have some things we wanted (didn't have oysters, or gumbo that night, no wonder, as there wasn't anyone there).

Owen wanted a po'boy, and the cashier/cook suggested the "Zeke Po'Boy", which contained catfish and shrimp, with potato salad as a binder/condiment substitute. The bread was just right, as most po'boy bread should be - light, not crusty bread. The fillings were good in the sandwich, I'll discuss more about fillings in a sec...because I basically got...

...the same thing, reconstructed. It was a catfish and shrimp plate, that comes with two sides, and I chose potato salad and red beans and rice. It came with one piece of bread, cut up, instead of a whole roll. The red beans and rice were excellent, a decent facsimile of the kind we had in New Orleans. Potato salad was a bit sweet. Here's close up of the catfish and shrimp...

The breading on the catfish and shrimp was all cornmeal. This was a very generous portion of both, but the taste got a ittle tiresome after awhile, as the fried cornmeal got heavy to eat. The catfish and shrimp were much better in the sandwich, eaten all together in one bite, with the potato salad. The desconstructed version I ate forced me to eat each part separately, so it wasn't as tasty as big bites of this between bread. I doused the fish with a ton of hot sauce, but I wish I had some tartar sauce - is that sacrilidge?

Uncle Darrows is a pretty quick little place to get some New Orleans style food, but it really doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. It'll do to fulfill your fix though.

Uncle Darrows
2560 Lincoln Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 306-4862
www.uncledarrows.com

El Coyote
Beverly Blvd.

By the way, yes, I've been lagging! I know, I know, I gotta gear up again for some major foodblogging, I've been plagued with stress and illness. No matter, Let's get to it!

Mmm, Mexican food. Why is it so good, the combination of meat in a tortilla, and some rice and beans? It's satisfying and substancial, especially when executed by a decent restaurant. I've been to plenty of Mexican food restaurants, and I have to admit, this is one of the superstars.

We were seated at a cozy table near the back, which suited me fine. Their drinks were superb...I got an Arnold Palmer as usual...

Oooo, a beautiful Arnold palmer! And it was a very good one too, the best combination of sweet, tart and refreshing. Owen had a few margaritas, and they did not hold back on the tequilla, to his delight, so thumbs up on that.
I got a simple combo - 2 tacos, one beef and one chicken, hard shell, with rice and beans. So pretty! The rice and beans were just right, not TOO salty as sometimes the rice and beans can get.
Here's a delicious close up of a chicken taco. Oooo, hard shell taco goodness. One of these did me in, and was very substancially delicious. Here was Jamie's mom's chicken taco salad. This thing was huge! I had to take a picture...the size of the tortilla shell that is encasing this monster salad...was about the size of a baby. A big baby. A big deformed baby that would eat this and become twice its' own size baby.

My verdict? This was a good place to go, despite my dislike for valet parking and really really tacky Halloween decorations. There's a lot of mexican food out there, and even though I wouldn't say it's as good as Tacomiendo (food wise), they got the booze and tasty drinks going for it, and a lot of clientele that swear by it. A very decent LA institution.