I had that moment of clarity at Sapp Coffee Shop.

At this point, I might be the very last person in the food blogosphere to try Sapp, much less thai boat noodles. Hell, even Anthony Bourdain had it with Dylan of Eat, Drink & Be Merry.

So what have I been missing out on? Joy. Happiness. Flavor bombs. Bliss. Seriously, I mentally kicked myself as I slurped down this bowl of noodles, thinking "why the f**k did I not come here sooner????"

I love Pho and I usually get the #1 or #2, because it's the one bowl that gets all the fun parts in there: tripe, tendon, brisket, meatball, etc. But the one thing that was always missing for me was a strong, savory flavor profile. I can appreciate the light and delicate nature of good pho broth, but I always end up dropping in a dollop of hoisin and sriracha (ok, make that five dollops of sriracha) sauce into the bowl, and thereby really destroying the essence of the broth. But I LOVE a strong, savory soup.

Cue Sapp's thai boat noodles.

It was love at first smell. It might not be a big bowl, but it packs a big punch. Sweet, salty, sour, hot, spicy, you name it, it's in there and hitting your senses. And damn, did it smell good. Visually, it was just as complex. You have pork rinds, meat balls, tendon, beef liver, beef tripe, all bathing in a rich, dark, broth. Each spoonful, each bite was rich and unique. It was simply...fantastic.

It's heaven in a bowl and it's perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Sapp Coffee Shop
5183 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 665-1035

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You can guess exactly when I took this picture from KFC's website.

Psych!!! Sike?!? wtf knows? Come on now. Did any of you really think KFC would extend an invitation to me to test out the Double Down before its launch on Monday? Here's what really happened:

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and we were headed to see Jill at Domaine LA when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a bunch of banners for the Double Down at the the KFC on the corner of Vine and De Longpre in Hollywood. Immediately, I thought "there's no way they'd put that many signs up for a product that wasn't available until Monday right?" Right? Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled into the KFC parking lot and said to C "I'm just going to run in real fast and see if the Double Down is really available today."

Once I was inside, I nearly crapped my pants when I realized: it WAS available. What to do though? I just had Sapp's Thai Boat Noodles, so I wasn't hungry. But did I really want to pass up on the opportunity to try out the Double Down? Minutes turned into hours (ok, it was a few more minutes), as I decided what to do. I wasn't planning on eating the Double Down today, especially since I had a lunch date meeting with one of my twitter unicorns, Jesse aka TriceraPops, Monday for the Double Down showdown tweetup. My fried chicken addiction got the better of me and I ended up getting in line to order one of these bad boys.

With the bag in hand, I jumped in the car, opened up the box and the first I did was...snap a pic.

What were my initial thoughts upon looking at this thing? It's f'ing substantial. It's a large ass sandwich, that's a lot of fried chicken and there is NO WAY that thing is only 540 calories. NO WAY. You're holding two pieces of fried chicken with some cheese, bacon and sauce. It's absurd. With that thought in my head, I took a bite of the thing.

Verdict? Wow, was this thing salty! I couldn't taste anything except salt. In fact, my tongue went numb after the second bite. I could feel my body starting to bloat from two bites of this bad boy. Whatever spices they used on the chicken, it was just too much. I couldn't taste the Colonel's special sauce, but it was probably adding to the saltiness of the "sandwich." 1380mg of sodium my ass. Everything on the nutritional content for the Double Down screams BS once you take a bite.

Don't get me wrong, I love my fried chicken, but when I order a two or three piece combo somewhere, I don't try to eat ALL of the chicken at once. It's eaten and enjoyed one piece at a time. For me, good fried chicken means taking a bite and getting just the right ratio of fried skin and juicy tender meat. You just don't get that with the Double Down because there is TOO MUCH OF IT AT ONCE! Even for someone like me who loves fried chicken, this was overkill. I never thought I'd say I had too much fried chicken, but I had to capitulate with the Double Down. We stuck it back in the box and tossed it in the back seat.

Later on in the afternoon, C and I decided to walk around Hollywood and Melrose like tourists. We'll take a little picture break before getting back to the Double Down situation.

With that little tour Hollywood and Melrose out of the way, dinner became our topic of discussion. Granted, my tongue still felt like it was stuck to a salt lick from the first two bites of the Double Down, but as a fried chicken fanatic, I couldn't let it go to waste. C suggested we eat light and at the moment, it clicked: the Double Down Chopped Salad was born.

Fried Chicken should never be wasted. NEVER.

Once we got home, we took the remainder of the the Double Down, heated it up and chopped it. It became the protein for our chopped salad.

We chopped the Double Down down to size

The Double Down plus the salad was an perfect evening dinner. Chopping up the Double Down brought the fried chicken into proportion and was a perfect complement to the chopped salad.

So in the end, we still salvaged the Double Down. On Monday, I will still slay the Double Down beast with TriceraPops. Game on KFC. Game on. And yes, my life insurance policy is updated.

You can get C's take on the Double Down here. She was the executive chef of the Double Down Chopped Salad.

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The LA Live JW Marriott is a world class hotel and features a world class lobby and had it opened in a walking city like San Francisco or New York City, it'd be constantly filled with people, strolling in and out, using the hotel is a congregation point. Not so much the case here in LA. It has nothing to do with the hotel itself, but more the fact that it's in Downtown LA, which is still in its infancy as a people-centric city center. While the hotel does draw large crowds during conventions and Lakers games, it doesn't have the same foot traffic that you'd see in New York or San Francisco.

The Lobby at JW Marriott

As an Angeleno though, I'm hopeful. It is a large and beautiful space and it gives downtown LA a "center," so to speak. Let's face it, it's much better than Nokia Plaza as a city center, which with all the sponsors, ads and lights, apparently was built to resemble our post-apocalyptic future.

Nokia Plaza

Umm, bring sunglasses. It's like they took this right out of Fifth Element, Running Man, Total Recall, or the ship in Wall-E.

LA Market by Kerry Simon at JW Marriott

gLAnce Lounge

Wine at the Mixing Room

Between The Mixing Room (sports bar), gLAnce Lounge (wine bar), Ion Bar (pool bar), LA Market (by Kerry Simon), a Wolfgang Puck creation and Illy's Coffee both due in April, there is no shortage of food and drinks at the JW Marriott.

Cuban Society - Bacardi Razz Rum, Galliano and Raspeberries

Rooftop Passion - Herradura Silver Tequila, Velvet Falemum, and Passion Fruit

The lounges and restaurants all feature different specialty cocktails. Best thing though: all cocktails are $10. Score. While these cocktails aren't going to compare to the libations made two blocks down at Rivera by Julian Cox or Cedd Moses' new Cana, it's a passable scene considering the location.

So what about the food? There's LA Market, by Kerry Simon, while The Mixing Room and gLAnce Lounge offers various types of small plates to go along with your lounging and relaxing. One of the secrets of gLAnce Lounge is that you can order off the LA Market menu. Keep that in mind the next time you visit. Wolfgang Puck's restaurant should open in April 2010.

Well, let's get on with the food. Our first trip to the JW Marriott included stops at The Mixing Room and LA Market.

Charred Edamame

Smokey, vegetable goodness.

Beef carpaccio with arugula, three sisters Parmesan, and truffle drizzle

The truffle drizzle brought smiles to table.

Tuna dynamite with lump crab, tuna, sushi rice, red chili aioli

Purists will throw their fists up in a fury, but this was good.

Fried calamari with spicy asian ponzu

The fried calamari was supposedly made with the colonel's secret recipe. Don't ever put a fried chicken man in a tough situation. The fried calamari did not taste like KFC in any way, shape or form. I guess once you tell me it tastes like KFC, I expect exactly that. Sadly, this went unfinished.

Seared salmon with ratatouille, crispy eggplant, and herb garden puree

Red Snapper with local market grilled vegetables

The fish eaters thought their dishes were slightly oversalted. The ratatouille was fantastic.

Meatball pizza

The meatballs are the same as the meatloaf special, which I believe is some combination of beef, lamb and veal. Nothing on the level of Pizzeria Mozza, but good nonetheless.

Lamb tangine with cous cous and cucumber yogurt

I'm not normally a big fan of lamb, unless it's lamb chops, but this was a very flavorful dish.

While these dishes are not going to knock you off your feet, in my opinion, they are better than the dishes at most of the restaurants at LA Live. I realize that might not be saying much when you consider the competition at LA Live, but you gotta make some type of comparison. All in all, everyone enjoyed their meal.

Junk food platter

Fresh Fruit

Dessert was provided on the house by Kerry Simon. His famous junk food platter from Simon LA at the Sofitel can also be found here. Sometimes, this is just what you need to end the night.

But alas, we aren't done just yet.

On my next trip back to JW Marriott, we checked out gLAnce Lounge for happy hour. The small plates menu was pretty comprehensive and it was helpful that we could order from the LA Market menu.

gLAnce Lobby Lounge

The ladies went with various cocktails, which of course I didn't snap any good pics of. Fortunately, you can check out Minty's review and see what they had.

Seared tuna taco stand with cabbage slaw and salsa fresca

I wasn't a big fan of the hard taco shell.

Hummus with market cucumbers fennel seed crackers and roasted red peppers

Sliders with avocado, vella habnero jack and lime crema

Grilled shishito peppers

Parmesan meatballs

Market burger

Market green salad

Mezze plate

The happy hour dishes were decent across the board. None of them stand out enough to justify making a specific trek out to try, as you might do for FOUR at Checkers DT, but they work well as complements to the cocktails and the happy hour scene. It is certainly a welcome change to the happy hour options at LA Live.

Will the JW Marriott ever reach the hustle and bustle that I envision such a grand lobby to have, I'm hopeful. It has all the right pieces for it to be successful, all we need now are the people.

JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE
900 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90015 USA
(213) 765-8600

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