Hi. Welcome to Planet Mut. Established in 2004, it’s the perfect outlet for my more sociopathic tendencies. Email me at planetmut@gmail.com.
If you want to read the five years’ worth of archives on the old HTML site, they’re here.
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I ASKED Jamie to make me a 40th birthday cake based on my Mini, but I had no idea she’d do such a bloody amazing job of it. From the checkered roof to the bonnet stripes to the GB letters to the grille badges, it’s perfect.
Not to be outdone, Ev got this masterpiece made for me:
Further cementing her position of “absolutely awesome”, Ev also arranged a surprise party for me. Loads of friends turned up with food and pressies, so I’d like to thank (in no particular order) Lenise, James, Mike, Shannon, Joaquin, Shay, Jeff, Amy, Steven, Jamie, Chris, Grant, Brenda, Ella, […]
A BURGER sandwiched between two tacos? Count me in! Think about it: the crunch of the taco shell followed by the cold lettuce, warm meat, more taco shell, then the bread, lettuce, tomato, cheese, burger, bread and back to the taco shell. Amazing. When I saw the advert for this, I told Ev, “I’m buying one and don’t you try to stop me”.
Trouble is, it doesn’t exist. CURSE YOU, JACK IN THE BOX!! It’s just a ploy to flog us the Jumbo Deal, which has all the makings of a Jumbaco (a burger and […]
I KNOW this doesn’t really count as a diner, but where else was I supposed to put it? The Sussex Teapot turns out to be about 10 minutes from our house and serves classic British dishes such as scones and jam, beans on toast, pie & mash and lots and lots of tea.
Here’s my choice for dinner: steak and kidney pie, mushy peas and mashed potatoes, which I’m 99% sure were made from Smash:
The mushy peas needed a bit of salt but were worthy of a British chip shop, but the pie was great. Instead of the semi-soggy pastry you get […]
Yeah, it’s out of focus. Sue me.
WE’RE in the pub. Ev happens to mention that she fancies Mexican food and that the Old El Paso quesadilla kit (“Everything you need to make authentic quesadillas” — except the meat, cheese, veg and any hint of authenticity, that is) we tried a year or two ago just won’t cut it this time. Flynn breaks the amazing news that there’s a Mexican restaurant in, of all places, Monmouth. A stunned silence settles over the table, finally broken by my croaking, shocked voice: “What… seriously?”
Indeed seriously, so what else could we do but head there […]
EGGS ETC on Redondo Avenue is another one of those places we’ve driven by several times and have been meaning to try for ages. So, using my birthday as an excuse to get together, me and Ev met up with Jamie and Chris on a rainy Sunday morning to give it a shot. The diner has been at its location since 1975 and that, along with it being packed out with a 30-minute wait at 11am, is a testimony to how good the place is.
Once seated and served coffee we checked out the menu. I decided on the aloha scramble from the […]
MY FRIEND Jamie excelled herself with this birthday cake, made to celebrate me turning 39 last Friday. Your eyes do not deceive you — it is indeed crowned with beans on toast wiv an egg on top as a tribute to my favourite meal. I haven’t actually tried it yet as we met Jamie and Chris for brekkers at Eggs Etc in Long Beach (review to come) and I’m still stuffed, but I’m looking forward to having several one or two slices later on with a nice hot cup of tea.
And in case you’re wondering, 1977 was the year of my fifth birthday and […]
I’D never been to an Elephant Bar so when Ev suggested we go tonight I was up for it. You know a place is good when it’s packed at 7pm and there’s a 30-minute wait, but we got a couple of menus and had a look. Foregoing yet again our “no starters” rule, we decided on the Niu Niu coconut fried shrimp skewers to kick off (no, I don’t know what “Niu Niu” means, either).
There’s six of them, big chunky shrimp coated in coconut, fried and served on a bed of salad and mango/orange sauce. We’re both huge fans of coconut shrimp and […]
EV REMEMBERS being taken to Martha’s Donuts when she was a little kid, and as she just turned [NUMBER DELETED] it’s been there a long time. We’ve passed it a few times while out house hunting in Lakewood and finally decided to try it out on Sunday afternoon.
The place is tiny, with only outdoor seating and you order through a hatch. After a quick look at the pretty extensive range of sugary, doughy food on offer I went for a chocolate donut. And a maple one. And a coffee. It’s amazingly cheap, the whole order costing less than $3.
Here they are, artfully […]
CHICKEN DIJON is tucked into a corner of the Marina Pacifica mall, between the AMC cinema and Barnes & Noble. We’d been meaning to give it a try for a while, so after checking out the performance times for Green Hornet we went in.
The restaurant is one of those fusion places that takes Mediterranean and Asian food and tries to come to a compromise with them. It’s also got a partially French name which just adds to the confusion. And it’s bloody expensive, with the house salad costing $8.49. After looking over the menu I chose the gyro sandwich (which is apparently […]
BRITAIN is many things — small(ish), damp for most of the year, green, prone to electing idiots — but one thing it’s not really famous for is chilli. Well, at least I’d never connected my home country to the small red things that make a lot of food inedible for me. But apparently the UK is now famous for producing the Naga Viper, which has just been recognised as the the world’s hottest chilli.
Even more amazing is that it was grown in Cumbria by Gerald Fowler, who grew it in his small greenhouse by crossing the previous hottest chilli, Bhut Jolokia, with two other varieties, […]
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