19105 Parthenia Street
Northridge, CA 91324
(818) 998-2934

I never really thought about it until I found this place, with it's run down look and lot filled with Ice Cream trucks, but this is where Ice Cream trucks get their ice cream and candy and it is open to the public. And it has wholesale prices and even sells dry ice for ¢99 a pound!

Not much parking because of all the ice cream trucks, but worth checking out!

And more mexican candy than you can shake a stick at, as well as other bulk candy. We did our halloween candy shopping here this year, and got some great ice cream truck ice cream as well.

Certainly worth checking out (and is on our way to Brent's so….).

The Counter, Custom Built Burgers
Various Locations in California and around the country.

A delicious higher end build your own burger chain, with signature burgers, and various types of fries (from Sweet, to chili cheese) and even fried dill pickle chips.

The burgers are delicious and can be had in 1/3, 2/3 or the monstrous 1 pound and are cooked to order including a deliciously rate medium rare. Then you get a choice of cheese (blech, I know it is only me). 4 Toppings including Sautéed Onions, then premium toppings (including Chili, a Fried Egg, Fried Onion Strings and Homemade Guacamole and Sautéed mushrooms) , a sauce from a huge list and a type of bun.

There are so many combinations you could easily have a different burger each time you go.

The Counter is a delicious and higher end burger chain, with a higher price to go with it, but well worth it for the taste and customization options.

The Hat World Famous Pastrami

Various Locations around Los Angeles

, CA.

A fast food institution from around LA since 1951 when the first stand opened. I actually can't believe it took me so long to eat here.

I tried the signature Pastrami Dip (Roast Beef with Au Jus), which was delicious, though like most food on the menu just covered in fat and grease. Seriously fatty pastrami here! With condiments in little packages to make it easy to go (but it is way too messy to eat in your car).

Tasty, but certainly not deli level pastrami, but still good and worth checking out.

A Los Angeles Fast Food institution, though better than some (like Tito's Tacos which I was not very impressed with) and better than most nationwide chain (except maybe 5 Guys).
Still you will feel this in your gut for a long long time!

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Locations, all over

.

A delicious $5.00 higher end fast food burger, made to order, which huge and delicious orders of fries (and malt vinegar). The menu is simple, with different types of burgers (many of which with 2 patties), hot dogs, veggie and grilled cheese (the burgers without the burger), regular or cajun fries, and a ton of burger toppings, which you order with the food and they make. And I love the pickles!

Made to order so it takes a little while longer, but well worth the wait, dare I say it even better than In N Out?

And the fresh made fries are fantastic, and come in a huge paper bag. Great with the balsamic that they have there.

If you like burgers you will certainly like the quality of Five Guys. It is still fast food (no medium rare here), but the best quality fast food for a slight premium.

And they have peanuts for you to munch on while you wait, though they are way too salty.

Having gone on this low sodium diet, it has really started to annoy me to see how so many products seem to replace low sodium with high fructose corn syrup. Personally if I want low sodium, I don't want High Fructose Corn Syrup.
A great example is Heinz Ketchup. Kelly and I had gotten used to the excellent Reduced Sugar Heinz (which has not high fructose Corn Syrup). It not so sweet, and is quite good.

Now after my surgery I have had to move to the No Salt Heinz, but it is again super sweet, as it has high fructose corns syrup. I love that it has no salt, but can't they combine the two?


And so many low fat or heart healthy foods also have so much high fructose corn syrup. Do they use the sugar to cover the chemicals they put in? Well I would rather have more vinegar, or something natural! Sweet is not the answer!

10336 Reseda Blvd.
Northridge, CA 91326
(818) 360-3474

This certainly should not be on my Low Sodium Diet, but Kelly was sick and wanted Fish & Chips, so I ventured out, after seeing that it had good reviews on Yelp.
Located in a little strip mall on the east side of Reseda just north of Devonshire, this is not a place where you want to eat. It is pretty dingy, and has only a few tables, this place is for takeout.
Owned and operated by an old Asian Couple, they do make amazing Fish and Chips. It has a simple menu including also deep fried shrimp, oysters, clams and calamari, but I was there for the very inexpensive Fish and chips.
The pieces of fish are quite large, and the fish quite tasty. I got a 3 piece and got Kelly a 2 piece and with a bottle of Malt vinegar, it was around $17! Quite a deal! In fact a a 2 piece if under $5! Wow.
I was actually qutie impressed. The fish is big and tasty, and the fries were good without being too salty.
And they make it all to order, nothing is sitting around, so it might take a little while (not too long at most 15 minutes), but if you are close you could call your order in and come in to pick it.
This place was pretty damn tasty, and I will certainly eat it again.

After realizing just how much sodium is in basically every commercial bread you can buy, we decided to get a breadmaker so we could make no sodium bread. Of course I wanted a Breville as their blender and toaster we have are the best I have ever seen! And of course their $250 Bread Machine is no exception!

The BRM800XL Custom Loaf if a kick ass which makes bread making as easy as can be. You can even put in spices or nuts or fruit and it adds them at the proper time while making the dough for proper distribution.

The bread is light and fluffy and quite tasty, even without sodium (though the plain french bread recipe I have from the 500 Low Sodium Recipes book could use some salt, but when I added some fresh basil and rosemary it became perfect).

In about 3 and a half hours you have a fully cooked loaf of bread, and can even set it up and set it on a timer, so you can wake up to fresh bread!

Honestly this thing is great, and far easier than I ever would have expected. Sure the bread can be a little flaky at times, but I need to try different recipes (looking forward to making sourdough) and even using it to make dough for pizza or bagels (which are very high in sodium).

My favorite new cookbook is 500 Low Sodium Recipes: Lose the Salt not the Flavor in Meals the whole Family will Love by Dick Logue. It is an easy read, and has some really great recipes that taste great.

I have been very impressed with the no sodium soy sauce alternative, and have been using the no salt bread making recipes with my new breadmaker (they are great, though of course could use a tad of salt for flavor).

He has some really delicious recipes and writes in a great style. This really is a must have low sodium cookbook! Very heart healthy.

Had my heart surgery, and you can read about it at the front of this site at JonahLee.com and click on Surgery. I am 6 weeks out and doing very well.

Have been put on a low sodium diet following the surgery, and I can't believe how hard it is. Amazing how much salt is in everything at the grocery store. Had to get some low sodium cook books and have had to basically stop eating out for the time being (though I want nothing more than a Reuben from Brent's).

Will be blogging about some new kitchen appliances, new stores I have found and cookbooks I am using to keep a low sodium diet, with a category of Low Sodium.

Interestingly though my chiropractor is against the low sodium diet (and want met to eat egg yolks which isn't great for my cholesterol), though if the at home cholesterol kit is right my cholesterol has dropped from 315 to 168! That is a huge change, and obviously the beta blocker and calcium blocker was part of that!

Have run my two blogs in there own Wordpress installs for years at Whale of a Tale, but with a recent update I stopped being able to run both blogs that way, and since I was having so many issues I moved my Restaurants Reviews blog to Blogger and decided I might as well move it to my JonahLee.com site, since it makes more sense being here than at my Whale of a Tale business site (and I might do the same with my movies blog, though that would be a lot harder since it has a lot more entries and might not make the transition quite so easily).

All the entries are still here (though there may be some translation mistakes, so let me know if you see any).

Likely going to be focusing more on Low Sodium dishes since that is what I have to eat for a while following my open heart surgery.