Pumpkin Hunting in the Mitsubishi Mirage

Los Angeles is one of those towns that is all about the car you drive. I mean people judge you immediately when they see your wheels so what better place to test drive the Mitsubishi Mirage, (what I also affectionately referred to as the “green machine”) than the streets of LA?

Fall is all about the pumpkin spice latte, however I was on a search to find dishes around town that would put a twist on the redundancy of the traditional treat. So me and my Green Machine went on a little pumpkin hunt. Come see how it all turned out after the jump.

DOMA KITCHEN

My first stop on my pumpkin hunt was DOMA KITCHEN for their butternut squash and & goat cheese tartine. What really sold me on this dish was the open-faced sandwich concept.  There’s just something about that one piece of bread piled high with fresh ingredients (think impeccably seasoned squash, creamy goat cheese and garden greens) there was much less guilt eating a sandwich when there’s only 1 piece of bread you’re consuming 🙂

Naturally since my meal was so health conscious 😉 , I didn’t feel that bad about ordering their pumpkin cake in a jar.

Everything about this dish was incredible! The presentation, the cream to fluff consistency of  the cake, the fresh fruit drizzled on top!  No lie I licked the jar on this thing. In fact I seriously contemplated going back for a midnight taste during an insomnia filled night. Good thing they close at 10P.M. :/

Ayara Thai Cuisine

My next pumpkin stop would lead me to an unlikely place. Ayara Thai, a family owned Thai restaurant just outside of Culver City. I’d been hearing all about their pumpkin creme brûlée and I could NOT wait to taste it. I had every intention of just trying the creme brûlée but when I got there things didn’t go quite as planned…

You know I’m all about presentation, in fact I believe how my food is presented is just as important as how good it tastes. Needless to say, serving my creme brûlée in a real live pumpkin kinda had me at hello. The fact that it tasted so damn good was the proverbial crystallized sugar on my creme brûlée cake. Seriously this dish was EVERYTHING!!!

Like I mentioned, I had every intention of having the creme brûlée but when I saw the Muay Thai Wings and Chinese Broccoli Pork Belly on the menu, I just had to have a taste.

So let’s start with the Muay Thai Wings, which can only be described as “fried unfried chicken”, because while the chicken is as crispy and flavorful as fried chicken, the preparation is not the same. What my cooking challenged brain gathered from the preparation of this dish is that, while it tastes fried the chicken is actually baked and lightly grilled which gives it its crispy taste. I took some of this home because I just couldn’t be the only person I knew to have experienced the amazingness of this dish. My little brother (who is quite picky might I add) fell in love with it JUST as much as me.

As for the Chinese broccoli and pork belly? Gosh, there are far too many over used adjectives I could use to describe this dish. Delicious, fresh, seasoned to perfection are just a few I’ll throw out there. If you’re a fan of Chicharrón then you know what I’m talking about.

Chomp Eatery and Juice Station

Chomp Eateries Cinnamon Crumb Donut Fried Chicken Burger could’ve gone either way, it was going to be either extremely good or,  incredibly craptastic. Thank GOD it was the former! Think of this as a donut burger without the fear of a heart attack after the first bite. Yes you’re eating a donut and yes you’re eating fried chicken but there’s something about both that just felt right. Unlike the Krispy Kreme burger this burger just felt light with the perfect meld of savory to sweet. The donut isn’t too sweet and the fried chicken patty not too salty. The two flavors complement one another. Because of the unexpectedness of this dish, I’d have to say it was my favorite find during my mission.

Now on to my experience in the Mitsubishi Mirage…

 

I am much better at making list’s so here are my pros and cons for this car.

Pros

• I saved a ton on gas! It was under 20 bucks to fill it up at $2,89 a gallon
• Incredibly roomy
• Easy to use navigation and Bluetooth system
• Affordable with prices starting at around &12,000
• Parking was a cinch because of how compact the car was. Which is weird because it was also roomy on the inside!
• Smooth ride, I didn’t feel a bump in the road

Cons

• Never could quite get used to the color
• Car has a slow start, I couldn’t really get the speed I needed while merging onto the highway
• The sound system wasn’t as clear as I’d like
• Although it was cheap to fill up, I felt like I ran out of gas fast
• Because it’s a fuel-efficient car, the car felt like it went into power save mode during the most inopportune times, causing me to drive slower than I wanted.

I have to say I wasn’t sure I would enjoy the Mirage,  I thought the car would be a little too “granola” for my lifestyle. However I couldn’t have been more wrong ! This car really stood out on the road and I actually got a lot of compliments from a few people when asked their opinion on the cars aesthetic (save for the one guy who said I looked like I was driving a green booger :/).  In the end I really ended up enjoying my time in the green machine!

Thank you Drive Shop and Mitsubishi for sponsoring today’s discussion.

See you guys on the road!