Sharing The Stoke. In Surf And Food. Like Pink's!

They say that sharing the stoke -- introducing surfing to somebody new to it -- is a great thing, and I'm here to tell you that it's true. Recently our nephew Bart graduated from college and decided to move west to pursue career options in California (never a bad idea!). Although he grew up near the ocean in Maine, he was always more into sports like hockey, skiing and lacrosse (plus there isn't really a huge surf culture in Maine, although you can, of course, surf off its coast). Anyway, we spend a lot of time at the beach and I, of course, continue my kooky surf odyssey any chance I get, so when Bart expressed an interest in surfing I put him together with my former instructor, and soon he was bitten by the bug. This is not uncommon. Now he has the essentials -- a board, a wetsuit, a buddy a short drive south of her who surfs extremely well, and an Uncle who's willing to paddle out any chance he can get.  It's a joy watching a person take a shine to something you love, and I'm sure that soon (if not already) Bart will be surfing way, way better than his lame uncle.

Speaking of joy, a quick side note: I recently had the honor of volunteering for a wonderful organization that shares the stoke with special needs children. It's called A Walk On Water, and what these intrepid surfers do is paddle out with kids who most likely would never get a chance to get on a board. They get the kids up and surfing like pros. I spent the day on the beach at Malibu during the most recent event, assisting wherever needed, and I have to say seeing the smiles on those kids' faces was unforgettable (another side note: got to meet surf dog Haole, a surfing retriever, seriously, the coolest dog you will ever see!) Anyway, can't wait to volunteer for this amazing group again.

Meanwhile, you can't talk about surfing without talking about food. Well, maybe you can, but I can't, and with Bart still learning the ins and outs of Los Angeles, there's also much to teach in terms of what to eat after a surf (or just whenever). In fact he's already working on a super-long list of must-tries. Near the top of the list, of course, is Pink's, the original on La Brea, where's it has stood since 1939! After our most recent paddle-out, we headed to Pink's and here was a nice light (haha...just kidding) lunch.

The chili-cheese dogs are a must-try in my book, but I also went for another classic combo from my New York days, just mustard and kraut, while Bart sampled a Lord of the Rings dog because it has some of Pink's excellent onion rings on top. So Pink's is crossed off the list. What will be next?!

Here's some useful info, not just about Pink's but also A Walk On Water and Haole:

http://www.pinkshollywood.com
http://awalkonwater.org
https://www.instagram.com/haoleboysurfs/

B-Day Waves. Plus A Vegan Lunch at Santa Monica's Erven.

Winter swells (and lots of winter rains -- a very good thing for California) have been keeping me out of the water the last couple of weeks. It's not just that heavy storms have a tendency to stir up a lot of junk, much of which is best avoided for a couple of days, but also the swells that accompany these storms are just too big for this Kook. Yes, still. I will remain, probably always, mellow day surfer, and I'm good with that. So what do you do when you can't get in the ocean? Well those same storms brought a lot of snow, so you head to the mountains, and you ski. I hit up the very old-school Mt. Baldy, which is barely an hour from LA, this past weekend.  Conditions were just awesome -- the best on Baldy in years.  Maybe the best I've experienced there ever.  The only drawback?  Huge crowds!  So lesson learned: hitting Baldy is only for sneaking off on a weekday after big snows. Otherwise there's just too many people.

But I keep my eye on the surf reports daily, eagerly searching for those conditions that are in my sweet spot and, lucky for me, some nice conditions popped up. On my birthday! It was one of those days, though, where I got to the beach, and things were a little different than the Surfline report. Yeah, it was pretty mellow but every once in a while, a bigger set would roll through. I paddled out anyway, sat out the bigger ones, and had some fun trying to go after the smaller ones.  After getting out of the water I was, of course, hungry. Since I knew the b-day dinner was going to be not exactly healthy (we were going for French bistro fare), something lighter was called for. I'd been reading a lot about the recently opened Erven (for chef Nick Erven) in Santa Monica. The restaurant is Vegan and I like to eat Vegan as often as possible, especially for breakfast and lunch, so that's where I landed, and I had the delicious sandwich you see here--

Tucked inside the excellent bun was shaved squash, Thai basil, golden raisins and some kind of creamy sauce, made with some kind of nuts certainly. Those blue corn tortilla chips came on the side and to drink I had a fresh juice made of carrots, ginger, turmeric, fennel, orange and apple. Can't get much healthier than that, huh? The juice was amazingly delicious too, though. Here's the thing about eating like this at lunchtime. You eat a lot, but you feel great after, not bloated or weighed down in any way. Also, it's good for the planet. I will return to Erven and try a bunch of other stuff because everything looked great.  

Here's more info. about Erven.  Go!

http://ervenrestaurant.com

Two Paddle Pomerance Strikes Again. Plus the Nomad Truck!

It happened again. I had a nice (at least I for me) surf session, and I was sitting in my car looking at emails and stuff, and this dude comes up to the car, and he says, "Hey, can I offer a piece of advice?"

"Okay, yeah, sure, but I know what you're gonna say," I answered.  "I get up too soon. It's kind of my Achilles Heel."

"Yep," he said.  "I was watching you. Two paddles more is all you need."

I thanked him for the pointer, even though I've heard it before. Two paddles more! It's become my mantra, and what you can call me if you see me out there (although here's another quick tip that I recently came across, also a new thing I repeat in my head -- when you're trying to catch a wave, it's all about speed and momentum. I should know this by now, of course, but I still have the tendency to not paddle hard enough to pick up enough speed as the wave comes. So I'm repeating these words a lot too: speed and momentum).

As always, two paddles or no, an after-session lunch was required. I had been hearing much lately about Daniel Humm, of New York's Nomad, coming to Los Angeles. Well, his new restaurant is coming and will be downtown. For now a Nomad Truck is cruising the streets of LA, and one of items I'd been hearing about from the menu is this hot dog you see here:

It's called the Humm Dog, and it's been available back east. For sure, it's not your ordinary hot dog. It's off the charts! Seriously. It's a bacon-wrapped dog -- sort of a tribute to those ones you pick up late at night after a concert or something -- topped with a celery relish, and on the bottom a truffle-flecked mayonnaise. The bun is one you usually associate with a lobster roll -- it's split on top, then each side is grilled, so it's browned, crisp and insanely delicious (clearly there is butter involved. Lots of butter). If you like hot dogs, go and get one ASAP.  Oh, the fries are excellent too.  Here, look--

So that's it. Two Paddle Pomerance will get back to the waves, and you should check out Daniel Humm's Nomad Truck. And stay tuned for the opening of the restaurant.

You can follow the Nomad truck on Twitter to find out where they are. Do it.

https://twitter.com/nomadtruckla?lang=en

My Very Own Surfer Girl. Plus Wings At Gus's on Crenshaw.

Not sure I'd ever say this, but I have a surfer girl. Not like a surfer girlfriend or anything like that, of course, but a girl who surfs who I sometimes hang out out with and chat with. Like the other day, I paddled out on a pretty mellow day, and there was my Surfer Girl friend already perched on her board in the line-up. I've been seeing her around for a couple of years, and we'd often get to talking. What defines her as a surfer girl, in my mind? Well, she seems to spend every minute she can in the water or at the beach. She's got sun-kissed bleachy hair and the vibe of somebody who maybe partakes of a little cannabis (although maybe not -- I know she's got a couple of kids).  She's a really great surfer, and I think she gives swimming lessons too.  Anyway, she was out there that day and we got to talking. She watched me paddle into a couple of waves, and actually catch some, and she said she was stoked at the amount of improvement she was seeing since the last time she saw me.

Then, of course, maybe I got overly confident but I totally nose-dived off a wave and ate foam.  Surfer Girl, watching me, pointed out exactly what I did wrong -- when I caught the wave and started to pop up, my hands were way too far forward on the board.  They have to be back at your side -- like those chicken wings I've talked about before.

The mention of chicken wings, of course, made me hungry, and since I'd been meaning to try Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken since it popped up at the corner of Pico and Crenshaw, I stopped on the way home and got the little lunch you see here:

This was the three wing plate (but for some reason they gave me four...not complaining!), with really nice creamy cole slaw, and I swapped out greens for beans because I love collards, and these were smoky and delicious too.

Gus's is a small chain that began many years ago in Tennessee and has slowly been expanding. I love wings -- if I make fried chicken I go for the wings. If I'm out somewhere and can order them, I do. These wings were really superb. Crispy but meaty, with a little spice but not too hot.  Definitely worth a return visit.  Get to Gus's if you like fried chicken (and even if you don't you could make a meal of the amazing sides!).

More info. on Gus's here:

http://gusfriedchicken.com

Look The Part. Plus Another Vegan Burger...This One With A French Laundry Connection!

For the second time in a matter of months, I've been mistaken for somebody who knows what he's doing on a surfboard. No joke. The first time I was headed to the water in my wetsuit, board under my arm. I was almost at the shoreline and a couple was seated there in the sand. The girl looked up at me and said, "Are you our surfing teacher?"
     "Huh?" I answered.
     "We're waiting for our surfing teacher," said the girl. "I thought you might be him."
     Well, needless to say, I set her straight. Later, I texted this incident to a real surfing teacher, the one who did his best with me for a really long time.  He got a good chuckle out of it, for sure

Then, just the other day, I was out again. It was a pretty mellow morning surf on some pretty small waves, so a good day for me. There was a long time between sets and so lots of downtime. At one point this girl on a board nearby said something that sort of made me laugh.  "I'm just going to watch you," she said.
     "Really?" I answered.  "Why?"
     "Well, because you kind of look like you know what you're doing."

So I set her straight too. I can sometimes look like I know what I'm doing, and sometimes, if everything comes together right, I can even impress myself, but most of the times I'm still in the Kook category.

Knowing what one is doing is good thing, both on a surfboard and in the kitchen. One chef who way  more than knows what he's doing is Timothy Hollingsworth, whose career I've been following for a while. Hollingsworth (who also surfs, btw!) was for many years Chef de Cuisine at the French Laundry in Yountville, and he may even have been there when we were lucky enough to be chosen as guests to attend a meal at the French Laundry by a dear friend. This was a multi-course menu, complete with different wines for each course.  It started around lunch time and we all rolled out of there several hours later. In short, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and anybody interested in cooking or food should definitely make a journey to Yountville, if you ask me. But back to Chef Timothy. He's now in LA, with two restaurants under his belt -- the barbecue-oriented Barrel and Ashes in Studio City, and Otium, downtown next to the Broad Museum. I haven't gotten to Barrel and Ashes yet, and we're reserving Otium for a special occasion like an anniversary or a birthday, so I was happy to hear that Chef Timothy was doing a partnership with Burgerlords, which is a really awesome little burger spot in Chinatown. I've had both their regular cheeseburger, and the Vegan version.  Burgerlords has begun doing monthly partnerships with chefs around town, available I believe on Mondays only, and Chef Timothy was the first.  He created two burgers, one featuring eel, and a Vegan burger that included shaved carrots, carrot top pipian (kind of like a mole), avocado spread and habanero pickled onions, which you see here, along with that heaping mess of crisp, delicious fries. I chose it because I like to eat vegetarian or vegan when I can, and it was a great combination -- it totally satisfied, and I didn't miss the meat at all.

So keep an eye on these guys. I, for one, can't wait to see who they'll collaborate with next.  More on Burgerlords here--

http://www.burgerlords.com/#new-page-1

Jason V. Stingray! Stingray For The Win!

If you spend any time in the ocean -- either as a surfer or a swimmer -- you probably have heard of something called the Stingray Shuffle. My first surf teacher told me all about it, about how you need to shuffle your feet in order to convince stingrays to move out of your way. Otherwise you risk getting stung. And, I was assured, getting stung is no fun. So I pretty much always shuffle my feet when I'm heading into the water. Once you can jump on your board and paddle, you generally don't have to worry about Stingrays.

Except...

When ya do!

First, a little background on these little creatures: these little suckers are cartilaginous fish, more precisely from the suborder Myliobatoidei, which derives from the order Myliobatiformes. Got that? (and thanks Wikipedia!). They are flat fish (like the skate you might dine on at a good seafood restaurant), bottom feeders that like to hang out in the shallows just beneath the sand. The key thing you need to know is that they have one (or more than one) barbed stingers on their tails. These are put to use when you accidentally come in too close contact, and when you get stung venom is released.  Here's a typical Stingray, just for your information--

Sort of freaky to see what lurks in the sea, huh?

Anyway, back to the Stingray shuffle. The other day, I headed out for a surf because conditions were nice and mellow and in my sweet spot. Of course I shuffled my way out in the shallows, then hopped on my board to paddle out to the sparse line-up.  As is my custom, I just watched the waves for a bit, just to size up what was coming and what it looked like I could handle. Along came a wave I thought I could go for, but I was a little late and missed this first one.  Then came another, and this too looked like a good one, so I paddle-paddle-paddled, caught the wave, and got up on my board.  All good so far. But my balance was off, and I toppled over. My right foot went straight down and touched sand, and right at that moment, I felt it -- like something bit me, right between my pinkie toe and the toe next to it!

The first reaction was something like this: "Ouch! What was that?"  It didn't initially feel like much but a quick nip, but when I got back on my board and looked back, there was blood. And then came the pain!! This Freakin' hurt!!  (Oddly enough, another thought passed through my head just before I noticed the blood...."Can I stay out and keep going?"  Well, once blood was involved I figured it was time to head back to the sand, and with the pain and the bleeding it seemed like a good idea to consult with the lifeguard.

Lifeguard Alex was, I have to say, awesome.  He got on his radio and before I knew it along came another lifeguard truck and then before I knew it here was a yellow bag filled with super-hot water and I was told to stick my foot in it because the hot water would 'cook' the venom and help ease the pain. You have to soak the sting for a good half-hour to forty-five minutes and Alex sat with me the whole time, and then when my foot was done soaking he bandaged up my foot! This is a good reason to always swim and surf near an open lifeguard tower if you can. If you run into trouble, these guys and ladies are the best, and I wholeheartedly thank them for helping me. Look, here I am all fixed up, and I got to keep the soaking bag!

So, in a way, I feel like I've been initiated into some club. Although I'd have preferred to have been excluded from this club, to be honest.  I had planned to check out Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken for lunch and report on it after this session, but with my still achy, bandaged foot, I figured maybe next time.  But a bit about food. I was pretty hungry when I got home, and after something like this comfort food was in order, so I made an egg and cheese on a roll and pretty much devoured it.

Next time, Gus's!!

Old School Surf Spot. Old School Tacos -- El Porto and El Tarasco

While I love going down to El Porto because it has its rough edges and can still be kind of old school (although that's being threatened on a daily basis, unfortunately), I have yet to get a really good session in. A big reason for this, of course, is my Kook status getting in the way. For example, I look at surf reports and see that it seems like conditions may be in my sweet spot at Porto, but when I get there it's different. It's not just that the waves are bigger -- Porto is different in other ways, and I think I may have figured out one reason why on this past expedition. It's such a wide open beach break, and probably because of the shape of the ocean floor or something waves seem to form further out from shore than at, say, Santa Monica, Venice or even parts of Malibu. This may be the reason (in my head anyway) that the waves just seem to pack more power -- they have a longer distance to travel before they break and so they gather up strength. I could be wrong about the mechanics of these waves because I'm far from an expert, but that's just been my experience at Porto. Not that it's not fun to give it a go here -- it's always fun. And I'm determined to get it right at this spot on a day that works for me. So the lesson here? Persistence! And patience. They will, in the end, pay off.

I'm also big on old-school Mexican food -- Tex-Mex some might call it, or Cali-Mex. Anyway, I love crispy tacos, and platters that include refried beans and rice. If you're in the mid-city area, for example, I'd send you to El Cholo (although they have other locations but the one on Western near 11th Street is the original and dates back to the 1920's!). Tito's Tacos, of course, are always excellent, and I've also always been a fan of Lucy's El Adobe across the street from the Paramount Lot (although beware...the service at Lucy's can be spotty). But walk into Lucy's and you could be in the 1970's California, especially if you sit in the booth with pictures of the 1970's-era Governor Jerry Brown and his then girlfriend Linda Ronstadt. But if you're in El Porto you'd have hit up El Tarasco on Rosecrans just east of Highland (and hat-tip here to Osoporto Founder/Guru Jon Berry for the recommendation). After my session the other day at Porto, here was lunch--

This was the #7 dinner plate. It features two fully-loaded crispy beef tacos, along with rice and beans. If you like old-school Mexican you will love this place, which has been there since 1969. The guy next to me ordered a burrito, wet (drowning in sauce and topped with cheese) and the thing was gigantic! I'm not sure if he was going to be able to finish it, but I'll have to come back and try one of those too. And the Chile Relleno, because I'm nuts for those.

El Porto is really, I gather, the northern end of Manhattan Beach but it was once independent, and it still maintains a bit of scruffiness -- the little beach town of Carpinteria south of Santa Barbara has a similar vibe. I love these old-school beach towns. But these places may not be able to maintain their low-key scruffiness forever, so if you like places like it, don't delay. And while you're at it, hit up El Tarasco.

http://eltarasco.menu

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