The place blows all business logic out the window.

Diddy Riese is a decently sized ice cream and cookie shop in a very high rent spot - Westwood Village. It is open until very late. There are at least four people working behind the counter at any one time. High rent, long operations, labor costs - and yet, Diddy Riese is able to sell two cookies slapped around a scoop of ice cream as a sadnwich for one dollar. And let me tell you, I am quite certian that 99% of the UCLA students who walk through Diddy Riese's front door spend...one dollar.

I just can’t see how $1 each can pay for the Westwood overhead and wages for four men behind the counter. Is there something else going on back there? Back behind those brown boxs with stacks and stacks of chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia, oatmeal and M&M? How does Diddy Riese stay in business?!

But you know what, if there is some crazy stuff going on, I don't care because I love Diddy Riese. I love every permutation of cookie and ice cream, except mint chocolate chip because I think mint is nasty. I never understood how mint chocolate chip ice cream could pair with a cinnamon sugar but I saw someone order it once. That's just wrong. So is the parking situation in Westwood Village, since a Diddy Riese run means you spend one dollar for an ice cream sandwich, but seven dollars to park there.

Diddy Riese
926 Broxton Ave (at Le Conte)
Westwood, CA 90024
(310) 208-0448

Though Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia is known as Little india here in Los Angeles, there are quite a few Indian restaurants on the westside. There are a number of restaurants and stores along Venice Boulevard in the Culver/Palms area, and even just north in Westwood and Santa Monica. A recent visit was made to Akbar in Santa Monica, a restaurant with four other locations in LA: Hermosa Beach, Pasadena, Third Street, and Marina Del Rey.

The restaurant is a little different from other Indian restaurants. The chef has a few of his own creations on the menu that go beyond the standard Indian restaurant items from the tandoori grill, chicken and lamb dishes like tikka masala and vindaloo, and vegetables like gobi aloo and benagn bharta. Last night, we tried something called chicken chutneywala, small pieces of chicken in a heavily minted sauce, and something totally brand new to me, gucchi, or mushrooms. Obviously, mushrooms are not new to me, but seeing them on an Indian menu was. The mushrooms were cooked in a heavy, nutty sauce that was mixed with fresh cilantro. I am not a huge fan of cilantro, but the mushrooms were delicious.

Some of the other little less usual menu items of note at Akbar: tamatter naan (naan stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes), cheese naan (naan stuffed with cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses), chicken aamras (chicken cooked in a mango sauce), and coco lamb (lamb cooked in a coconut-fennel sauce.

The LA Times cooks, starting with the basics of the basic, mirepoix, and glorifies timballo, a dish made of pasta or risotto that is baked into a mold. I think I remember something like this from my chilhood. It was called "spaghetti pie."

Teakettles are put to the test to determine which method is best for boiling water - stove top vs electric. The result? Seems to be a draw.

Dining about La La Land, SIV visits Boneyard Bistro for some barbecue and asks "Really, who wants to eat venison with foie gras in a casual, loud setting?" She gives it two stars (**). Counter-Intelligence heads down to Torrance for a study in washoku at Yuzu, and we get the lowdown on the down lows of Bastide's closing. It was just "too French." I don't know why, but that's funny to me.

In the world of wine, the Times gives us tips on how to spot a bad wine, and SIV highlights a 2004 Blanc Fumé de Pouilly par Didier Dagueneau (say that five times, fast) from the Loire. At $45 a bottle, it's "a relative bargain for a wine of this quality."

Although breakfast is the least complicated meal of the day to prepare at home, there are times, especially on Fridays and the weekend, that I like to take the morning off and go out for breakfast or brunch. Almost all breakfast places are good, because there aren't too many ways to mess up French toast.

So the differentiator among the breakfast joints is value - the best tasting breakfast for the least amount of money. There are plenty of restaurants that serve good breakfasts, but charge $14 or more for an omelet.

Lazy Daisy Cafe is a three-location chain of cafes in Los Angeles that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch for great value. At the West LA location, the cafe faces a fairly noisy part of Wilshire Boulevard, but it's easy to overlook that when both the interior and the staff are bright, cheerful, warm, and friendly. Though Lazy Daisy is slightly more than the $3.99 breakfast special at the Tomy's shack on Sawtelle, pancakes for only $5.95 and a huge stuffed omelet for $7.95 are much less expensive than some other breakfast places in the area. The best part? A giant, bottomless cup of coffee that you pour yourself from the counter. 

Lazy Daisy also serves salads, sandwiches, and other lunch-ish fare until 3 PM.