What You See is What You Eat.

Hey! As a few people have emailed me (sometimes I can’t believe people listen to me as well as they do; I can’t believe even more that people read this as consistently as they do), let me explain: 1) it’s the HOLIDAYS, people; 2) because of (1), I haven’t been eating out very much, instead opting for the egg roll goodness that is my mom’s cooking; 3) I’ve been dog sick with the flu, just dog sick (my dog is not sick though, yay! 2009 will be a non-hospital year for Idgie!); and 4) despite (3), I’ve haphazardly gotten myself involved in a group organizing a fundraising drive slated for February whereby you eat a designated restaurant and such restaurant donates a portion of its proceeds to Lambda Legal or some other legal defense funds to assist in the epic Jerry Brown v. Kenneth Starr battle that will commence henceforth in the spring. One of the partners told me that it costs at least $100,000 to pursue a case well; at least $200,000 in a criminal case. Justice, and injustice, is very expensive.

Here’s one I meant to post right before the sickness. The Kitchen, a potential target of our fundraiser.

Just to be clear right off the bat, The Kitchen I’m talking about is a homey little joint in Silverlake, not an expansive, enormous Chinese dim sum place in Alhambra. (You can tell a lot about people by their word association skills; reminds me of this Richard Pryor skit on SNL when SNL was being politically incorrect the same way Sesame Street was at the time. If you immediately connect The Kitchen to Silverlake, then you really are the white hipster dude or young Asian girl arts-school graduate that you strive to be. Yay!)

I used to come here a lot, back when I was living in Los Feliz, right after Los Feliz became the New Silverlake, but just before Echo Park became the Newer Silverlake. It is a little diamond smacked between the roughness that is the gay, gay Akbar and the family/ consumer capitalism that is McDonald’s, on Sunset and Fountain. I can’t think of anything more American, or gayer, than this.

The Kitchen is one of the contenders for the best fries in the city. We didn’t order them this time around (too early for fries) (although, you’re right, how can it ever be too early for fries?), but they are the best. A big bowl of seasoned, tossed in herbs-crisp-skinny, fresh french fries, almost too hot to bite, certainly too good to not. But, like I said, we were not here for the fries, we were here for the brunch.

I kind of hesitate to tell everyone about the brunch here, even though I always do, or end up bringing everyone I know here, even though I live clear on the other side of town, because The Kitchen is known more for its comfort dinner, and late night eats than it is for its brunch. When I was living around here, I used to walk by and think that the whole brunch thing was a myth, because it was so empty on the weekends. Turns out, people don’t realize that it has one of the best brunches in town. While all y’all go on to Millie’s, Fred 62, Eat Well, Madame Matisse, etc. down the street – I’m here, no wait, no line. Thanks for the seats!

Everything you would want for breakfast is here: eggs (poached, fried, scrambled, omeletted), pancakes (awesomely served with fried potatoes without a damn about your carb loading!), french toast, fried chicken and eggs!!, sangria, mimosa, plus their regular lunch menu. I ordered the Eggs Tuscany: “poached eggs on english muffin with red wine sauce, served with applewood smoke bacon and breakfast potatoes.” Two things: 1) There is no extra charge for poaching the eggs, which restaurants annoying do sometimes; and 2) this is only $10. Others got the pear pancakes ($10) and the Breakfast Sandwich (prosciutto, fried egg, frisee topped with blue cheese, served with breakfast potatoes and side salad of frisee) (also $10 — a theme. The only brunch item over $10 is the fried chicken and fried eggs, which is $11).