Punching Your Ticket for New Food at Stubhub Center

Taste of Stubhub Center

18400 Avalon Blvd.

Carson, CA 90746

I'm not going to write about this great event and try to fool you into thinking I'm a soccer enthusiast. To be truthful, I try to get into soccer every four years when the World Cup rolls around, but then there's always some sort of awful call, or I get tired of watching the players rolling around on the ground trying to draw penalties. I know athletic skill is involved here, but flopping is the biggest reason I tune out when soccer comes on.

So you ask, why am I at Stubhub Center? My love of food outweighs almost everything. I was told that many great new food options are being offered to the LA Galaxy supporters, along with many craft beer options. I also wanted my good friend Richard, one of the biggest fans of the Galaxy, and soccer in general, to experience this event with me. So we left work a little early and braved the traffic on the northbound 405 freeway.

This was my first visit to Stubhub Center, which is not only a world-class venue for soccer but also has an 8,000-seat tennis stadium here and a soccer stadium with over 27,000 rabid fans. Opened in 2003, Stubhub Center has hosted some of the biggest soccer games in Major League Soccer (MLS) history, has been the setting for some of the hottest entertainment acts around today, and is located on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills. Even though I'm not a big soccer fan, I am a sports fan, and being this close to the field was pretty impressive. I may or may not have gone out there and kicked a few imaginary goals for my adoring fans in the stands. All that running around made me hungry, so I was looking forward to seeing what the folks at Stubhub had in store for us.

I was told this was not your typical stadium grub, and the first thing we tried, the Hawaiian Tuna Poke confirmed that. Poke is all the rage right now, with many restaurants solely serving these tasty dice-sized morsels of seasoned tuna. This was a good version, with plenty of avocados and cucumber slices on the side, and it was simply seasoned to allow the natural flavor of the tuna to shine through. An excellent light option for fans who don't want to eat heavy, they have the energy to cheer on Alan Gordon and the rest of his LA Galaxy teammates.

Also, not something that you see every day at sporting events was this Korean BBQ Short Ribs with Asian Slaw. These were probably one of my favorite things I had this evening. The short ribs were easy to eat since they were so tender and tasted great. I'm a big fan of short ribs, and having these while watching sports, would be a winning combination.

You've probably had nachos at baseball and football games, but nothing like these from Stubhub Center. No gross orange liquid cheese here. They use real cheese, roasted corn, cotija cheese, and some delicious tortilla chips. Not overly heavy like other ballparks nachos, you still have the energy to cheer on your LA Galaxy.

The hits kept coming at Stubhub Center, with this Jamaican Jerk Chicken served with Quinoa Salad and Yucca Fries. The chicken really did have a jerk feel to it, but it was a little clumsy to eat because it was such a big piece. The yucca fries were pretty solid, even though I'm not a big fan of yucca. I also am no fan of quinoa, as I've been burned by it many times during the run of this blog, but the girl next to me raved about this salad, so I'll take her word for it.

Of course, Hamburgers are nothing new at sporting events, but this might have been one of the better ones I've had at a stadium. I liked the natural bacon strips used on these burgers, and the cheese melted perfectly. The burgers could have used a little more condiments, but they are still juicy burgers. Garlic fries are all the rage right now, and these were excellent. Fired nicely, with a good crunch to them, and the right amount of garlic was used here.

After all this food, I did not try these Pizzas from Fresh Brothers, but they looked pretty tasty. Fresh Brothers is a pizza chain that is expanding instead rapidly, and it just became the official pizza of Stubhub Center earlier this year. So I'm looking forward to trying them out real soon.

Not only is the food being upgraded at Stubhub Center, but they have also added many local craft beer choices at many of the concession stands here.  We were talking with the craft beer guys here, and they said that this South Bay area is becoming a hotbed for craft beer in Southern California. They rattled off over a dozen brewers producing their beverages in this area, many of which are available at Stubhub Center. I enjoyed the Absolution Hefeweizen, as it went down smoothly on this relatively warm day.

I left Stubhub Center pretty impressed. The food was, of course, pretty stellar, but I was most impressed with the fact that they were taking chances and bringing items to a sporting event that you usually do not see. Talking with a few people from Stubhub Center said that soccer fans are more demanding of their food than other sports fans, and their concessions have to reflect that. But they nailed it with the new food items we tried.

The end of the LA Galaxy season is fast approaching, and if you haven't been paying attention, they currently are sitting in first place, with two games to go, and then they will be trying to win their MLS record-leading sixth championship. So you have one more regular season game (October 18th against the Portland Timbers) to try this food available at Stand 18, located on the Stadium Club end of the stadium. I might not be the biggest soccer fan in the world, but food like this, they might have made me a convert.

To find out all the latest things going on at Stubhub Center, including their schedule of events, go to their website here: http://www.stubhubcenter.com/

Teddy's Hits the Mainland - CLOSED

Teddy's Bigger Burgers

1113 North Harbor Blvd. 

Fullerton, CA 92832

My dad had a minor setback from his hip surgery earlier this month, so we had to rush up to the hospital to keep the big guy company. He's fine and all, but hates being in the hospital, so we sat and talked with him for a couple of hours. My mom had wanted to eat in St. Jude's cafeteria, but I'm not a big fan of hospitals, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. So I quickly searched to see what was around, and Teddy's Bigger Burgers popped up.

Teddy's came across my radar late last year when they invited me to their grand opening party. Unfortunately, I could not make that event, but I made a note to try them at a later date. I was surprised to learn that this is a rather big chain based out of Hawaii. Starting 17 years ago, Teddy's has 18 US locations in five states and has international outposts in Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

They were started by two guys, Ted and Rich, who lamented that they could not get a backyard quality burger in a fast-casual restaurant. So they spent the next few years finding suppliers and developing recipes. So I was excited to try their interpretation of a modern 50's hamburger joint.

We got to this, their only California location, at about 7pm on a recent Friday evening. Teddy's is located right off of Harbor, in the same shopping center as Ralph's, and they share an outside dining area with Wing Stop, Subway, and a Flame Broiler. The restaurant was a lot bigger than it looks like from the outside, but we still chose to sit in front of the restaurant to enjoy the fresh air. Ordering is done at the counter, you are given a pager, and then they bring the food to you.

The menu, of course, is dominated by burgers at Teddy's. However, they have many options to choose from. You can build your own burger, get a custom burger, or try one of their other types of burgers, like a turkey, veggie, or salmon burger. They also have chicken sandwiches, chicken strips, and fish and chips. We made our choices and waited for them at our table. This is how it all came out for us.

Everyone on Yelp was going on about these Garlic Butter Fries ($3.59), and they were good but not as good as the hype suggested. They were on the dry side, and the butter seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the basket. They shaved garlic and whatever the green part of this was, had plenty of garlic flavor, but without the butter to help bind it to the fries, it fell off when we tried to eat it. I'd give these another try, though.

My mom ordered these Beer Battered O-Rings ($3.99) to accompany her meal. I thought that the portion size for these was a little skimpy, but these were pretty solid onion rings. The beer batter crust had a good crunch and hung with the onion. Made even better when these were dipped in ranch; these were a big hit at our table.

My niece Lillie was running around like a maniac for most of our time at Teddy's, showing off her expert use of her new Heelys shoes that she got for her birthday. However, she only stopped to quickly scarf down this Kid's Combo Corn Dog ($5.99). This kid's meal included fries and a drink, and she did a great job of finishing the corn dog, which sometimes can be a chore with this girl.

This Chicken Tenders Kid's Combo Meal ($5.99) did not go over as well with my other niece, Gracie. She's a picky eater, though, and did not enjoy the chicken tenders that much, calling them just alright. She did finish one, but only after she was promised a milkshake if she ate it. She did have no trouble polishing off her fries, though. Raising kids seems like a really good time.

Now the real reason we were here at Teddy's is the burgers. I went with my old standby when eating in a new burger place, bacon, avocado, and cheeseburger. At Teddy's, they call this the Bacado Burger ($10.19). The ordering process for burgers at Teddy's is a little odd. They have three base model burgers, an original burger, a teriyaki burger, and a double burger. Then they have three different patties: big, bigger, and biggest (5, 7, and 9 ounces). Then, as if that was not confusing enough, you have the option to make your burger into a specialty burger for between $1.30 to $3.50 more, depending on what you want. Got all that? So what did I think of this burger? Let's start with the obvious first. There was way too much lettuce on here. Of course, it's easy to discard, but for some reason, they put their special sauce on the lettuce, and when I took it off, I was left with a burger with no sauce. The rest of the burger tasted okay but slightly bland without a condiment. The bacon and the avocado did not really stand out here, which is a shame. I liked the potato bun. It was soft and held everything in place. The cheese was also a highlight, as it perfectly blanketed the patty. I'd probably get a different burger next time I came here, and I'd definitely ask for easy lettuce.

I thought Katie would try a veggie or turkey burger, but she was ordering the Kailua Burger ($9.19). This is Teddy's version of a mushroom and Swiss burger, with teriyaki and grilled onions added. Again, too much lettuce, but at least Katie had the teriyaki sauce to bind everything together. She thought this burger was okay, nothing spectacular. There were plenty of mushrooms on this, and she liked the melted Swiss cheese. We had ordered chili cheese tater tots, but when the food came out, we received Chili Cheese Fries ($4.69). These were okay, but I had heard good things about their tots, so I was slightly disappointed. The chili here was excellent and flavorful, and even though I'm not a fan of cheese sauce, this one was pretty tasty and well-made. The fries did a great job of staying crisp until the last one was gobbled up. Even though we got these by mistake, they ended up being fine.

My nieces both got Shakes ($4.29), but selfishly I did not get to try either of them. The online chatter about Teddy's raves about the shakes here, but I have been trying to be good and decided I'd forgo one. That won't happen on my next visit, though. I have my eye on the Nutella or the Peanut Butter and Chocolate for next time.

I had higher hopes for Teddy's than this, but it might have just been what I got on this trip. Now that I know the lay of the land at Teddy's, I'm sure my next trip will be a little more enjoyable. I'd ask for no lettuce and have their ordering process down a little more. I think they are a little high for a casual burger place, but it would not prevent me from returning here again. Everyone we dealt with on the staff seemed to want to make our visit enjoyable. Despite the few minor hiccups we experienced with the food here, I'm still glad we ate here instead of in the hospital cafeteria.

Out of five grass skirts (because Teddy's, of course, started out in Hawaii, and if you've ever been there, you have probably been mesmerized by the hula girls wearing these), five being best to zero being worst, Teddy's Bigger Burgers gets 2.5 grass skirts.

For more information about Teddy's Bigger Burgers, go to their website here: http://www.teddysbb.com/58046/home

Looking for a Burger Hookup

Hook Burger

1731 N. Victory Pl. 

Burbank, CA 91502

Sometimes the best laid plans kind of go a little haywire. We were up this way for the wedding of Katie's cousin, which kind of went a little long into the night, and then of course we headed to her Uncle Tom's famous garage, for the after party. We did not end up getting back to our hotel until about 2:30 in the morning.

Too tired to go to any of the restaurants we wanted to hit up in this neck of the woods, we looked for one of the highest rated on Yelp, that was nearest our hotel. Something that would sustain us for the 2 hour plus drive that we had ahead of us getting back to OC. That's how we ended up at Hook Burger in Burbank.

Hook Burger is a mini chain, with five locations open, all in LA County. They started in Oxnard five years ago, and are run by the original team behind one of my favorite burger places, The Habit. The ordering process is the same here. You order at the counter, then the food is brought to your table. They characterize their burgers as upscale, in a fast and casual environment.

They are also pretty big into doing things the right way. They use humanely raised beef for their burgers. They also use locally sourced produce and bread from local bakers. Even their decor in the dining room comes from reclaimed wood. This is all great, but I was really excited to see how their food would taste, and if it would help soak up some of the libations I had the night before. Let's see what we thought about Hook Burger.

Much like the Habit menu, there's more to this place than just burgers, as Katie can attest to. She selected their Fresh Tuna Albacore Melt ($7.75) from their five kinds of sandwiches on the Hook Burger menu. This sandwich usually comes with cheddar cheese, but Katie subbed out Swiss to go along with the lettuce, tomato, and mayo that also came on this sandwich.  Served on a toasted sourdough bread, Katie really enjoyed the freshness of the tuna here, and was happy she went the Swiss route instead of the cheddar. She also remarked that the toasted bread helped make this sandwich, by adding a crunchy texture to it. She definitely would get this again.

Of course if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I was going to try a burger here. None of the pre-made burger options really spoke to me on this afternoon, so I got their Prime Burger ($8.25 with all the enhancements that I added). The prime burger comes with caramelized bourbon onions, lettuce, tomato, and honey Dijon mayo. I also added bacon, cheddar cheese, and avocado. This was a pretty solid burger, and definitely what the doctor ordered on this afternoon. I liked that there was plenty of avocado on this, and the bun was very sturdy, but still soft. The hamburger patty was pretty tasty, but the bacon kind of got lost here. I wish they were as generous with the bacon as they were with the avocado. The Dijon mayo was actually pretty good, and I had my doubts about it before having it. The Dijon was downplayed just enough for me to really enjoy this condiment. Not just a pretty looking burger, but a good tasting one as well.

I always love when places offer a sampler platter of some of their side items, and at Hook Burger they call it The Trio ($5.95). This hat trick of fried food included french fries, sweet potato fries, and crispy onion rings. My favorite one of the three was the onion rings. A very good breading, which crunched when bitten into, and most importantly it did not break apart from the onion. The fries were good, but a little on the small side for me. I would have liked them better if they were the same size as the sweet potato fries. I'm not really a big fan of sweet potato fries, but Katie liked these well enough, and I thought they were okay. All of these items were fried nicely, and not overly greasy.

Job well done Hook Burger. You sustained us until we got home, helped clear my head from a night of adult beverages, and I'll even give you credit for the mostly clear sailing that we experienced on the freeways of Southern California. The burgers here are pretty good, but I'd like to see maybe a basic bacon cheese burger on their menu of the already made burgers. The burger did not blow me away, but you can tell that it was made with quality ingredients, and that goes a long way in my opinion of this restaurant. The quality is definitely on par with The Habit. The price point is also a big plus for this place as well. They only have one item, a steak sandwich, which is over ten dollars, and even that's only over that mark by two quarters. Service at the register was very good, and they answered all of our questions. The table side service was fine as well, and I even saw a manager going from table to table making sure everything was going all right. A very nice touch. Hook Burger was not what we had planned on having this day, but we are glad that we ended up eating here.

Out of five hockey sticks, (because hockey season is right around the corner, and some of the players will be called for hooking using their sticks), five being best to zero being worst, Hook Burger gets 3 solid hockey sticks.

For more information about Hook Burger, go to their website here: http://hookburger.com/

A Hot and Steamy Night at Kettlebar - CLOSED

Kettlebar

2493 Park Avenue #41

Tustin, CA 92782

It finally seems like the Union Market in Tustin is getting on track. It's been a prolonged process, but this much-anticipated retail and restaurant space in the old Borders Book area of the District at Tustin Legacy is finally getting some life. We walked around the space earlier this year, and it was almost sad. There was lots of construction and empty booths, but little action was happening. The few booths that were open were not really drawing customers, from what we could tell.

Flash forward to earlier this month, and the area seems much more alive. There are many more retail booths open, and what I was eagerly waiting for is that more food places are now open. Taking up residency at the Union Market are Front Porch Pops, cookie shot vendors, The Dirty Cookie, Crepe Coop, Portola Coffee Lab, Hatch, a sliders and craft beer space, and a place that's moving up my list of restaurants to try, The Kroft. That place will have to wait another time, as we were meeting our good friends Alex and Jaszlyn and having dinner at Kettlebar.

Kettlebar is a Cajun/Creole restaurant that uses steam kettle cookery to make their dishes. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you that I understand how they use steam to make these dishes, as I'm not an advanced cook or anything, but this kind of restaurant is one of the hottest things right now. Okay, sorry for the bad pun. Anyway, this is our second time eating at a restaurant like this. Our first was a place called Ritter's Steam Kettle Cooking, and we really enjoyed the food there and hoped Kettlebar would be just as good.

The menu is the same here as at Ritter's. They have some appetizers, a couple of salads, a shrimp or oyster po boy sandwich, and the main event, the bowls. There are a couple of ways that you can go here. They have Cajun standards like etouffee, gumbo, cioppino, and probably their most famous dish, the pan roast. There also seems to be more emphasis on alcohol than at Ritter's. Many craft cocktails, wines, and beer are available at Kettlebar. Our waitress was aloof regarding what was on tap, as she had to keep making runs to the bar to find out what they had available.

We got to Kettlebar at about 6pm on a Friday night. The restaurant was pretty busy, but they did a great job keeping the tables turning over, so we got in immediately. I don't know if it was from the steam cooking or just the heat outside, but this restaurant was relatively warm, and we were sitting near the back of the place. No big deal, as I was ready to see if this place would be as good as our first experience at a steam kettle joint. Let's see how it went.

I usually do not highlight my beers when we are out, but I enjoyed this Mr. Pineapple from SanTan Brewing Company. I'm partial to lighter beers, and Hefeweizens are right in my wheelhouse. I liked this beer because it was a little different, with the added fresh pineapple juice and the wheaty aftertaste. It was very refreshing and went well with what I hoped would be my spicy meal.

Not one to be swayed by what's popular, Alex did not go with a pan roast like the rest of us but instead had this Cajun Garlic Noodle ($18 with clams added). He could not have been happier with his decision. This came out way before our meals, and he had almost already finished half of this before we had gotten our meals. Alex felt this dish had the perfect amount of garlic included, loved the clams, and would not say a bad thing about his dinner. For once, the big guy was speechless, and we all enjoyed the silence, at least for the few minutes he was quietly eating.

Jaszlyn, Katie, and I all got the pan roasts, which all look the same in the pictures, but each of these was different. Katie opted for the Chicken and Sausage Pan Roast ($16), Jaszlyn had the Shrimp Pan Roast ($19), and I had the Kettlebar Pan Roast ($23), which came with the same creamy tomato base as the others, but with snow crab, lobster, shrimp, chicken, and rice swimming in the bowl. Jaszlyn and I had asked for ours to be spicy, but the heat in these was very manageable. I liked the creaminess of the tomato base; the shrimp was prevalent, but the rest of the other proteins got lost here. The rice-to-pan roast ratio was a little off. I had way more pan roast when I finished my rice. It's not a big problem, and I could have just ordered a side of rice for another two dollars.

Pan roasts are filling, but we decided to try two desserts, the first of which was this Hummingbird Parfait ($8). This dessert is a variation of the southern dessert staple, the hummingbird cake. I had just heard of it this night, but it is a banana pineapple spice cake. I did not detect a banana or pineapple flavor in the one bite Alex allowed me to have, but they loved this dessert. It even inspired Jaszlyn to claim that she would make this shortly. I hope to get invited over to try it when she does.

Mine and Katie's dessert was not as good as the hummingbird parfait. This Cinnamon Bread Pudding ($8) sounded much better when the waitress described it, but it fell flat, like with many bread puddings I have had. I liked that this had ice cream served on top of it, but the bread pudding was a little on the dry side and could have been made better by adding more ice cream. There was a definite cinnamon tinge here, but even that could not save this dessert.

We all left Kettlebar liking it, and we'll be back, but I liked Ritter's a tad better. I liked Ritter's appetizer variety more, and they made their pan roasts with a little more kick to them. Kettlebar is worth visiting and is much more convenient than Ritter's. The evening service was pretty good, as we did not have too many problems, except Alex's food came out five minutes before the rest of us hit the table. Glad to see that Kettlebar has brought some much-needed life to the Union Market.

Out of five walleye fish (because the city of Kettle Falls, Washington, hosts several walleye fishing tournaments throughout the year), five being best to zero being worst, Kettlebar gets 3 walleye.

Kettlebar has a minimal website, and that's putting it mildly, but hopefully, it will be updated soon. Click here to see it: http://www.kettlebar.com/