Aerial Food Tour of S. Los Angeles

[jschyun]

Took the helicopter tour of South Bay, with Chris Cognac, police detective cum food writer.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to write a full on report right now, but suffice to say, there is a lot more coming in a few days.

Aack! Must go.

[mongo_jones]

chris cognac's a police detective? NEVER disagreeing with him or asking him for pork related recipes.

[marlena spieler]

chris cognac is a police detective?

wow! i want to interview him!

[Mabelline]

Does this mean doughnut jokes are not good, either?

[melkor]

I really need to come down to SoCal for a ride-along.

[melkor]

I think donut jokes are a good idea, though Chris may disagree.

[Chris Cognac]

What about "pork donut" jokes...you can kill two birds with one stone then!

Just so you know, the donut thing is from back in the old days, cops would hang out in donut shops because they were warm, open and had coffee...most people forget that we have to be out 24 hrs a day in all weather, while everyone else gets to be warm and toasty inside!

Now, on to the tour...Las Hamacas, the first place that we flew over is a neat little southern mexican place with about 8 tables....anyway, I spoke with Jose the owner/chef yesterday about him doing a tasting dinner for e gullet people one night..He said he is all for it and would work on a menu....I think this would be pretty fun for us to do and it would not cost a bunch. I can set it up for march or April....he has great mole!

People often wonder how we find our way around in the sky....I tell everyone, I just look for my favorite restaurants and they light the way....it may sound funny, but its the truth!

Edited February 16, 2004 by Chris Cognac (log)

[dfunghi]

Chris,

"most people forget that we have to be out 24 hrs a day in all weather"

Yea that South Bay weather can be brutal! Good luck

D

[Chris Cognac]

Chris,

"most people forget that we have to be out 24 hrs a day in all weather"

Yea that South Bay weather can be brutal! Good luck

D

Hey, I had buy a rain coat this year...first one ever!

by the way Jschyun is SUPPOSED to post some of the cool photos from the "tour" soon...

[jschyun]

Alright people, keep your pants on, here they are:

(Unfortunately many of the photos were really bad. Here are the best ones I could get.) This post is going to be heavily edited to add more stuff.

This is the helicopter we flew in. It was really small but a surprisingly smooth ride and we maneuvered around the air like birds! Just to clarify, Chris is the one on the right and the helicopter is the one on the left.

We flew around to the beach and back. Chris put on the infra red scanner so I could see all the Valentines lovers on the beach. I had a small monitor in the back where I could see everything.

Here's a horizon shot. This is mostly what you'll see at night, sans the red blotch.

Another horizon

Check out the upper middle part of this photo. Chris shined his spotlight on it so I could get a pic. I forget which restaurant this is because I was so busy trying to get the stupid camera to work right (Chris, help?) but it was early on in the tour.

We touched down at LAX at one point to get this shot. We are standing on the helicopter pad. We slowly flew over people in the terminals and I could see everyone going in and out of the Bradley (is this right?) terminal.

Flying in that little craft was like being in the movie, The Fifth Element.

[JennyUptown]

Show us your piece, Chris. Pretty please?

[Chris Cognac]

Could you have picked a worse picture of me...I look like a total dork!...My "piece" is in the shoulder holster I am wearing...The place in the spot light is "Las Hamacas" a wonderfull mexican place where I have arranged to have a tasting menu put on for us, should we choose.....Now Jschyun.....you need to post the cute pictures I took of you in the back seat of the helicopter while we were flying around.....By the way, the pics do not do the view justice....its simply amazing and a never ending see of lights that do not end until the ocean!

you can see the "theme building" with the restaurant "encounter" inside, in the LAX shot along with the new tower...It's really cool cause you fly right down the middle of LAX to land on the chopper pad!

Edited February 18, 2004 by Chris Cognac (log)

[tejon]

That is one slick helicoptor! Looking forward to more pictures. So far, it looks like an incredible time.

[jschyun]

Some commentary on our trip

The helicopter takes 62 gallons of fuel and is so compact. Mark the (Angry Armenian) mechanic went through a quick drill with me; he told me where everything was, what to use, what not to touch, and most importantly how to leave the craft without getting my head cut off.

Mark(Angry Armenian),Jim (nice pilot guy),me,Chris

As a side note, I only had to read and sign one piece of paper. By contrast, when I went skydiving, I pretty much had to sign my life away multiple times, and had to initial in a dozen different places that I would not sue the company, etc.

Once that was done, I got in the craft, Chris Cognac took a couple of pics and then Jim the pilot started the engine. At first, we hovered only a couple of inches off the ground, then we swooshed in the air and left the ground and the mechanic behind us. It was like riding in a car, except we were in the air, wearing noise cancelling headphones, and the smell of fuel was thick in the air. It was amazing how fast I got used to it.

Valentine's was a quiet night. We went to the beach a couple of times and Chris, as mentioned above, turned on the infra red for me to check out all the Valentine's sweeties there. It was kind of weird flying over the beach, seeing the waves so close beneath me. I felt a pang of guilt as I realized I had ditched my Valentine's sweetie to go on a foodie helicopter ride. On Valentine's Day, no less. I am a horrible person. But..helicopter...adventure...

Chris talked nonstop about his favorite places to eat.

"Let's go to B & R Burger! It's in a little strip mall. Oh man, their burgers are the best! " is basically what he said (I had no tape recorder). He proceeded to talk about the softball sized burgers and how he took all his police buddies there and they loved it. We circled around this little strip mall as Chris shined his police light on it and it so I could take a pic. I scrambled to take a pic but I couldn't get it in time. Anyhow, I couldn't figure out how to turn off the damn flash so I had to fix all the photos in Photoshop.

This may or may not be B & R Burgers. I can't tell. Chris!

We flew around various restaurants (Las Hamacas! "Their mole is the best!") and Chris would yell for me to take a pic while he had the spotlight on it. Meanwhile, I'm still struggling to take a decent pic with a camera whose manual I've never read. Agh. Damn flash button ended up being the one I was supposed to press twice to disable. Double Agh!

We also flew over Western in Gardena, where a lot of the Korean restaurants are. Chris talked over the intercom about Heung Boo Nae (sp) and a casual family style place, either the one that used to be yet gol, or sam oh jung, I forget. Some talk of going to a soft tofu joint near there with Korean co-officer in the know.

Suddenly there was a call and Chris gave me the "wave" that signaled that I had to stay quiet so he could hear the other people. Within seconds, we flew over the city and found our destination. Apparently, some crazy/drunk guy rammed into the gates of the Air Force base and was holed up inside his truck, within the compound. In the space of a second, Chris went from bubbly food man to serious police guy and started talking on the radio to various departments, telling the police cars on the ground where to go. We could see everything, and Chris kept an eye out for places the guy could run to. We circled around the base until the ground cars got the guy out of the truck. Chris said the guy was lucky he didn't get shot when he rammed through the gates, a thought echoed by someone else as well.

There were a couple of other arrests, including one where we circled around this arrest of 2 guys and there was only 1 officer dealing with the situation. Chris yelled when the officer turned his back on the 2 guys ("You're not supposed to turn your back on them, you could get killed!") When backup came we flew on to more food sites.

We touched down at LAX and tried to take a pic of the restaurant there but camera wasn't doing very well. See pic in earlier post

We passed by hustler's casino a couple of times. Very bright and gaudy place.

I also extracted a promise from Chris and friend to go to dim sum. Apparently, Chris was scarred from an earlier experience at dim sum, having seen chicken feet being eaten. I love chicken feet, but did not mention this as I did my best to convince Chris that dim sum is not "slimy". I extolled the virtues of things I thought he would like: warm barbecued pork buns, little shrimp dumplings, flaky custard tarts, but his pursed lips looked unconvinced. It's a work in progress.

Edited February 19, 2004 by jschyun (log)

[Chris Cognac]

The one shot is of B/R burger...burgers to die for....really!..I wont go there unless I am armed...but man they are so good..There is a pic of the burger in this page ..B and R Burger

I get pretty hungry flying around up there thinking...."oh, I bet that place is good"...hard part is trying to find it again on the ground at lunch time....I only get to see the roofs and fronts from the air!