TACO SHOWDOWN: La Carnita vs. Grand Electric

Alright, so here's the deal. I've clearly been using twitter as my preferred "food blogging" platform these days, but the other night I finally ate at La Carnita after a few months now of frequenting Grand Electric. And seeing as how they're both about tacos and hip-hop, I had to do a comparison. And I can't do that in 140 characters. So now it's time for...

LA CARNITA vs. GRAND ELECTRIC ULTIMATE LUCHA LIBRE SHOWDOWN!!

INTRO

If you need some background on either one, do a little googling and I'm sure blogTO, Toronto Life or The Grid will give you the lowdown.

My personal experience with La Carnita started with their very first pop-up at One Method. I was impressed by the concept and the tacos, but never tried to go again after the hype built. I'm not particularly down with line-ups.

Grand Electric is a 5 minute walk from my place and was put on my radar by djmightymike38. I found out their kitchen features Black Hoof alumni and I've been hooked since, frequenting it pretty often.

Anyway, after about a year of successful pop-ups and building a dedicated twitter following, La Carnita opened a permanent location early last week. I tried it out and here are my first impressions. Keep in mind that this is all based on a thus far limited experience at La Carnita, and a fairly comprehensive one at Grand Electric. I realize my opinion might be skewed and that I have more to explore at La Carnita. Don't worry, I'll be back ;)

Spoils from La Carnita's first pop-up: print 46/100

THE WAIT

Currently, neither resto takes reservations and works on a "come in, leave your number, and we'll call you back" basis. I've gotten pretty accustomed to this from the early days of Local Kitchen and Black Hoof.

When I got to La Carnita, which is in Little Italy, my first impression was that it was huge and had the capacity to serve a lot of people. I thought we might even get seated right away. It was just before 8 pm, peak dinner hours, and the girl told me it was a 45 minute wait. Compared to the average 2 hour wait at Grand Electric I'd experienced in recent months, that sounded just fine. I killed some time shopping down the street (ended up buying something pretty special!)

Grand Electric is in Parkdale. Up to about 2 weeks ago, they had a tiny space which people would line up for starting at 5:30 pm (6 pm open). The first time I attempted going there, they told me it was a 3 hour wait. HOLY DAMN. I didn't end up going that night but eventually learned to expect a 2ish hour wait if I arrived during peak dinner hours. I would give the girl my name, walk back to my place and have a few drinks, and wait for them to call. They have since opened their patio which added 70 seats, and I haven't had to wait so long since then.

The menu on Grand Electric's patio

WINNER: La Carnita. Every visit can be a roll of the dice, but if I had to bet, I'd go with La Carnita if I was pressed for time.

ATMOSPHERE

When the girl at La Carnita called me back after 45 minutes, I walked in to the sounds of "Too Close" by Next. That's my jam baby! The music leans a little more R&B and a little more mainstream. The staff and patrons are young and trying to be trendy. We sat at the bar so I can't comment on the back of the house but from what I can tell it's a nice, rustic-cool space.

The music at Grand Electric is definitely focused on rap and a little more underground. The staff and patrons? Well, it's Parkdale baby. You know what it is. The space is small with a hip, genuine, intimate vibe. I've sat everywhere in there except the bar. The new patio is nice but they don't have speakers out there for blasting dat RAP MUZIK... that's a serious flaw.

WINNER: I'd say this is a tie. Both places are great to bump your head with friends (unless you're on GE's patio). Just depends on your mood and whether you're feeling a little more R&B or a little more rap, really. The volume inside Grand Electric is on the borderline of being too loud to have a conversation, but who really needs to talk when you're eating delicious tacos? Besides, drinking a bunch of bourbon makes me talk a lot louder anyway... Which brings me to the next round...

BOOZE

The cocktail I decided on at La Carnita based purely on name was the Who Shot Ya? It had bourbon in it but I couldn't really tell... it tasted like juice! Tart, fruity, damn good! My dining partner got the Tecate, which is a Mexican beer that tastes like water. Neither of us is into that Coors Light crap so this Tecate seemed disappointing, but it was actually very refreshing for the heat we were about to experience...

Special mention: A section of the drinks menu is dedicated solely to "Baller Champagne" and they serve 40s of Olde English inside paper bags.

As we proceed to give you what you need...

Grand Electric's namesake cocktail is their Grand Electric (bourbon) Sour which is garnished with some spice for a little heat. For something cooler and definitely refreshing there's the Bourbonade (you guessed it, bourbon + lemonade). Both of them are tasty without overpowering the bourbon, so yes they have a nice bite and oh yes, they get you drunk. My dining partner usually gets the Cerveza Monkey, a craft beer from Toronto's own Great Lakes Brewery.

Special mention: They've got a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard menu of bourbon (the brownest of the brown liquors).

What's that? ...You want me to drink you?

WINNER: La Carnita. Just because I loved how the bartender slammed that cocktail in front of me and said "Who Shot Ya?" If you're particularly into beer, champagne or bourbon, you might swing either way.

APPETIZER

We only tried one at La Carnita so we could leave room for a broader taco selection. Our bartender/server convinced us to go with the chiles rellenos, a.k.a. jalapeno poppers. You can't go wrong with fried cheese... it was yummy and not too spicy.

My go-to appetizer at Grand Electric is the Spicy Squid. It's lightly fried calamari in a sweet/spicy sauce and garnished with a LOT of thinly-sliced jalapenos. It reminds me of eating mild hot wings. I friggin love it. I've also had the Beef Crudo Tostada which, in other words, is steak tartare, and quite nice.

WINNER: Grand Electric. I just love that Spicy Squid. La Carnita's chiles rellenos were good, but not as interesting in terms of flavour, presentation, or concept.

TACOS

At La Carnita, we had the fish ("In Cod We Trust"), the Pollo Frito, and the beef tongue (Lengua Tostada). What I noticed right away was that the tortillas at La Carnita are unnecessarily larger than Grand Electric's. I don't need a bite of tortilla with no filling in it. Also, except for the tongue (which was served on a fried tortilla), the tortillas weren't as soft as Grand Electric's, which have a nice, almost al dente bite to them (steaming process perhaps?).

The next thing I noticed at La Carnita, was that my mouth was on fire. So I guess that's authentic Mexican. But damn. It was actually so bad that I couldn't finish 2 of my tacos and wasn't sure if I could eat anymore at all. THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN TO ME, OK? I'm a born and raised plate-finisher, so that was a little traumatizing. It was so hot I couldn't really appreciate the flavour profile of the tacos. I guess I'm just a wimp :P But luckily I found that a few glugs of my dining partner's Tecate eventually cooled the fire.

I've had all the tacos at Grand Electric: the Baja Fish, Beef Cheek, Pork Belly, Pig Tail, Arbol Chicken, and Pork Barbacoa (special). I love them all but the fish and beef cheek are my favourite. The fish is legitimately off the hook, and compared to La Carnita's fish I'd say it's lighter and more melt-in-your-mouth. The beef cheek is sweet and tender (pro tip I got on my first visit: put the red sauce in the little bottle on it). The barbacoa is awesome too when they have it. My least favourite would be the chicken, not that it's bad, it's flavour profile is just not as interesting as the others. You see a touch of Black Hoof's offal influence in the tail, cheek and belly. And something that I now really appreciate: heat is optional. If you like it hot, you can add the green sauce or the caramelized onion/peppers concoction they have for condiments on each table.

WINNER: Grand Electric all the way. I've loved (and demolished) every bite of every taco I've ever had there. And Baja Fish rules all. ALL, I tell you. I didn't like the texture of the tongue at La Carnita (my fave tongue comes from Black Hoof where they shave it super thin like pastrami, transforming the tongue completely from chewy to tender). I found their Pollo Frito to be overcooked as well. It might've been a somewhat closer call though, if I could take the heat at La Carnita and appreciate any subtleties in their flavours.

DESSERT

Ok, so I read a lot of tweets hyping up the churros at La Carnita as the bomb $h!t, with people raving about how they would drink the cajeta that it's served with, if they could. I ordered them (10 minute wait as they're made to order - no problem) and they were very good, with a great cinnamon to sugar ratio, BUT...

Grand Electric used to have bomb churros that were actually FILLED with cajeta. They were SO GOOD. Not as much cinnamon, but hello? FILLED. WITH. CAJETA. By comparison, La Carnita's serving of cajeta was a little wimpy. Unfortunately, Grand Electric has since taken churros off the menu. I asked why and they said it was the most labor-intensive thing that they had. They were so worth it though! They still offer desserts in the form of basically little pudding jars in "key lime" and "chocolate & pecans" flavours. Nice, but ain't no churros.

WINNER: La Carnita. It's all about churros, and if Grand Electric still had their sexy-ass version of them, they would've won. But because they no longer offer churros, La Carnita wins by default.

PRICE + TAKE-HOME

Tacos are $5 each at La Carnita and if you ate 3 you'd probably feel well fed after that. When you receive your bill, you also get a limited edition art print, staying true to their roots of pop-up art + food.

Print 235/5000

Tacos are $3.50 each at Grand Electric and if you ate 3 you wouldn't be hungry but you could probably go for 1 more. When you receive your bill at Grand Electric, you receive a loteria card. I didn't know what this was and actually didn't pay attention to it until the 2nd time around when I realized I got a different card from my previous visit. So I googled it. Loteria is basically Mexican bingo. You can also do readings with them, similar to Tarot cards.

The bottle, the spider, the moon, the brave one.

WINNER: Tie. The taco prices are comparable but for the same $$ I'd rather have Grand Electric's. However, La Carnita's art prints are fucking cool.

OVERALL VERDICT

I enjoyed both restaurants, but when it comes down to what's most important - the food - my pick for overall winner is Grand Electric. Like I said previously, this is my initial reaction, and I will be returning to La Carnita to get an even better feel for their menu and space. But for now, I'm feeling GE is OG.

Ok, La Carnita, we get it... maybe you're trying a little too hard?

All in all, you WILL do yourself a favour by checking out either one of these places. Grand Electric gets more love from me though, especially because it's in my hood.

- LV

momofuku noodle bar

Well, it's long overdue. The post on my Momofuku Noodle Bar experience. I'm bringing it to the forefront of my blogging backlog, because Robyn recently shared the news with me that David Chang is bringing Momofuku to Toronto!! Very exciting, and a perfect opportunity to segue back to my family's evening at Noodle Bar.

So here goes! For some context, you may want to start at the beginning of my NYC food adventure here.

After walking around and doing the tourist thing, taking pics at the Rockefeller Center, Statue of Liberty, etc. and even witnessing a Columbus Day Parade, it was dinner time and we were finally hungry again. Despite feeling that it might be a little too trendy for my parents, I decided, what the hell, we're in New York City, let's try to have dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar! As we approached the address, I got more and more nervous - "what if it's too busy?" I thought. "What if they snub us cuz we're obviously tourists? What if we wait forever and then my parents don't even like it? What if we wait forever and then *I* don't even like it?" I didn't want to be disappointed by my hero A.Bourdain! (He raves about MNB in Medium Raw.) But when we got to the door and I saw that there didn't seem to be too many people waiting (shorter than the queue at Red Lobster in NJ, where we ate the night before... wtf!) all my nerves disappeared and I found my resolve. I went up to the friendly hostess and she told me it would be a 30-35 minute wait... challenge accepted!!

We ended up waiting exactly 30 minutes and got a pretty sweet spot at one of the communal tables. We shared it with 2 Asian dudes who ended up being really REALLY into their noodle bowls... they weren't even talking or looking at each other, so it was almost like we had the table to ourselves. Anyway, the place was beautiful, all blonde wood, and I was so ecstatic to be there for my Thanksgiving dinner, I ordered a 34 oz. Asahi (I was ID'd of course... haha).

Japan's no. 1 beer!

The first thing to come was my cured arctic char, with ponzu, umeboshi and lychee. This dish was the stuff of Iron Chef America judging criteria. Perfectly balanced in flavour and texture - the sweetness and soft silkiness of the char and lychee, the almost pungent saltiness of the peppercorns (although I'm honestly not sure they were peppercorns, they almost look like little blossoms, hmm), the crispness of whatever the heck the garnish was and the toasted coconut. Also, I usually don't like lychee but it was really subtle here and perfect for the dish.

anyone know whether or not those little black blossoms are some kind of peppercorn?

Then came the steamed pork buns. These live up to the hype!! The fatty pork belly melts in your mouth... not like when you get lechon and it can be tough and chewy. The buns were fluffy with a sort of al dente bite to them and the cucumber gave it some contrasting crispness. The hoisin sauce also cut through the richness of the pork belly. SO YUM!! I must have these again some day!

hellz yeah!!

Next was the roasted foie gras with almond, pear and smoked tea. Now I have to tell you that the best thing I've ever eaten so far in life is the foie grass on toasted brioche with bacon and onion compote at the Black Hoof in Toronto. Every foie gras experience I've had outside of the Black Hoof has *just* crossed the line of being too rich for me. I know foie is *supposed* to be rich, but for some reason at BH I didn't find it overly so, and I easily ate it with gusto. Maybe they slice it a little thinner there or something. Anyway, the foie at MNB was good for the first few bites, and the rest I sort of had to force myself through. I was glad to have the pear there to offset it - and my brother to help me eat it. It was here that the "duck" flavour of foie became really clear to me - I realized it tasted like a super-rich version of balut, a.k.a. fermented duck egg, the infamous delicacy of the Philippines.

check out those thick lobes of foie!

Next up came my brother's order of smoked chicken wings with pickled chili, garlic and scallions. Very "Asian" flavoured and cooked SO perfectly. Really tender with just a gentle pull plucking the meat right off the bone. Nice!

ain't no thing but a chicken wing

Then my mom's order of slow-roasted beef brisket with rice, pickled vegetables and cilantro. Well my mom didn't end up eating much of it cuz it was cooked medium rare, in other words, BEAUTIFULLY, but my mom can't handle the slightest sign of pink in her beef. Even though I've tried to convince her multiple times that this is the way beef should be eaten, she won't have any of it. The rest of us happily ate it for her and it was very tasty (there ain't nothin' like well-prepared beef), although the spice rub on it was a little much for me after a few bites, and I had to scrape it off.

lovely vibrant colours

Next up was my dad's dish, basically the restaurant's namesake - the Momofuku Ramen. I never get noodles when I go for Asian, they're just not something I crave. But my dad is definitely a noodles guy, he loves pho. And he did enjoy the ramen, which featured pork belly, pork shoulder, and a poached egg. I had a taste and it was good. A nice, straightforward, you-know-what-you're-in-for-and-that's-why-you-ordered-it, satisfying kind of dish.

dad started mixing it up before I could stop him and take this snap

Finally, there was my brother's dish, which was the special that night and another highlight of our meal. It was a noodle bowl also, but not in a broth, and I think that's one reason I enjoyed it so much vs. other noodle dishes. They were "cold" noodles (room temperature actually) dressed in chili oil with crumbled sausage, candied cashews, and baby spinach. Our server had warned us that it was "really spicy" which scared me a little, but my brother was all for it. I've built up my heat tolerance in the past year or so, and I am learning to like the burn, but it still freaks me out sometimes. Anyway, it was actually REALLY good. It was the kind of chili oil used for Szechuan hot pot. It's a heat that doesn't blow your face off the moment it touches your tongue, but is instead a slow-building, intense tingle that eventually has you sweating by the end of the meal. How sexy is that?! LOL

sexy heat in a bowl


We were too full for dessert at the restaurant but by the time we got back to our hotel, our sweet tooths kicked in and we dipped into our stash of cookies from Milk Bar, which tied up our Momofuku evening nicely. Overall, it was a special, unconventional Thanksgiving dinner that I was glad to experience with my parents and brother :)

happy shpanksgiving!

holmes on homes

It's certainly been awhile since I've posted anything under the "belly" category of yummy belly. But with spring around the corner, our studio's gig calendar is starting to fill up. We kicked off this year again with the Burlington Women's Show, where local businesses geared towards women set up booths and tables at the Tansley Woods Community Centre for a day of shopping, beauty secrets, fitness tips, and best of all, free food and cocktails! Last year's show was my first ever performance as part of a BellyUp troupe. At the time, I was still part of the student troupe, and I can't believe how much I've progressed in just one year... to the point where I've taught classes at the studio, do gigs on my own, and sometimes get paid for them too! I still have a long way to go in honing my technique and style, but I feel great about where I'm at so far.

goofing off at the BellyUp booth

The show was just as fun as it was last year. Besides getting to dance for a receptive crowd of fellow women, my favourite part of course was wandering around between sets and booth duty to try out all the food and drink! (I know this was supposed to be a "belly" post but the "yummy" part of yummy belly simply can't be ignored!) I nibbled on sliders, pad thai, grilled shrimp wrapped in bacon, lobster & crab cakes, caramel corn, and chocolate cake just to name a few things. They were all sample-sized servings but with so many things to try, it was easy to get full! I also tried martinis, Caesars, wine and other cocktails... all sample-sized too of course, so there was no getting inebriated :P

we do our little turns on the catwalk

There were also onstage recipe and mixology demonstrations by Jeremy Parsons (who apparently does segments on tv as CHCH Morning Live's "Entertaiment Guru"). As he demo'd, servers went among the audience with trays of samples. I was able to try his ginger-cranberry jam on pork, a yummy smoothie with banana and Kahlua, and an easy but decadent dessert that was simply slices of puff pastry topped with chocolate ganache and slivered almonds. Mmm!

Ninang Marion is in the crowd!

All in all, it was a fun day. The show is always great promotion for the studio too, with many women who take our brochures and flyers and end up enrolling for classes!

We did another event with good exposure just this past weekend. It was a fundraiser at Philthy McNasty's for an Oakville girl with a genetic connective tissue disorder. She could only receive specialized treatment in the States, so the event was to raise money for her treatment and for awareness of children with chronic pain disorders. We do a lot of fundraising events like this (like the breast cancer and WELNepal events I posted about before), but this one got quite a bit of local media attention because of special guest Mike Holmes of Holmes on Homes! LOL.

c'mon, who wouldn't want to be Mike Holmes at that moment?

After doing our numbers we got him up and dancing with us, he was quite a good sport about it. He may or may not have gravitated towards me and told me I was the best dancer. LOL! Of course, he told me not to tell the others, so keep it a secret k... *Mike Holmes sooo has a crush on me* hahaha! Obviously I'm more likely to have an eye on his son (he was there also), he was pretty darn cute but was accompanied by what appeared to be a girlfriend :P

his tool belt would have accentuated his shimmy!

Anyway, fun event! CHCH cameras were there, and there was another "celebrity appearance" after we left by Pinball Clemons. More importantly, Montfort was passing around samples of babaganoush and hummus with pita (there goes the "yummy" again)!

love our costume colours together!

So far, a good kickoff to bellydance in 2011, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year! We've been working on some really great choreographies in class and I can't wait til they're ready to perform :)

birthday cupcakes

I celebrated a milestone birthday this month and planned a big party at a nearby tapas bar and lounge. Guess who offered to make cupcakes?

chocolate cupcakes, salted caramel filling, dark chocolate frosting, sprinkled with flaky sea salt

Click to find out more!

vancouver, pt. 4

(For some context, check out Parts 1, 2, and 3!)

After our brewery tour, we wandered around Granville Island some more and happened upon a place called Artisan Sake Maker. When I was planning our trip itinerary, I'd listed it as something we might want to check out, but it wasn't a must since both Will and I had written sake off after bad experiences (for me it was a sip of Hakutsuru that Josh brought to a house party long ago). Even the previous night when we were at Hapa Izakaya, Carm was trying to convince us to have some of his sake, telling us it really was good, but we were like NOPE. The thing was, after the brewery, our taste for drink was piqued. And the placard outside Artisan Sake Maker offered a tasting for only $5, so we figured, why not?

I'm so glad we did it. The sakes we tasted were all lovely! Very reminiscent of white wine but more subtle, with the fragrant notes of, obviously, rice. The girl poured us about two sips each of 3 different sakes, all served chilled. She described the different tasting notes we might be experiencing. She also explained how lower grade sake is often served warm to improve its flavour, but that you could very well warm up high grade sake to make a good thing even better. Like wine, it's all about personal preference. One of the sakes we tasted, which was opaque instead of the typical clear, smelled savoury when we raised the glasses to our lips. But when it hit our tongues, it was surprisingly sweet! I wish I'd bought a few bottles to take home so I could share that little phenomenon with y'all! Next time for sure, because now I know: sake is good, as long as you get the good stuff! Like most things, you get what you pay for.

After sake, I was soon leading us back in the direction of the market. I'm sure I could have easily spent the whole day in the market alone. I was regretting eating breakfast beforehand (no matter how sassy) because I didn't have room for all the amazing stuff I wanted to gorge on.

We did manage a few things though. We sampled various local honeys (tried creamed honey which was new to me and DELICIOUS), I bought more salmon snacks (spicy version this time called "hot bits"), Will bought cafe mocha fudge (I sampled that vendor's caramels too, MMM), and finally, I bought a freshly-made mini cream puff (from a place called Lee's Donuts)!

fancy salts!

not just food at the market... beautiful reclaimed wood cutting boards

this vendor makes it easy for anyone to add gourmet to their meals

Will's partialness to fudge is inherited from his dad!

charmingly irregular cream puff!

There was still SO much more I wanted to try. No worries, Granville Island Public Market... I'll be back *Arnold voice* (a tribute to our True Lies afternoon :P)

Finally we decided that there was still more of Vancouver to see, so we left Granville Island and continued along the seawall to Vanier Park. After some sightseeing, we figured we'd check off an errand my mom had set out for me: pick up some treats for her from Goldilocks.

So for those of you who don't have a Filipino in your life, Goldilocks is THE bakery chain of the Philippines. Whenever a Filipino goes "back home", what they bring back for you definitely includes some treats from Goldilocks. Typically their polvoron. Outside of the Philippines, they only have a few storefronts where there are large Filipino communities. In the States, it's various cities in California. In Canada, I guess it's Vancouver, cuz they have 2. So it was my mission to hit it up and bring back some ensaymada and mamon for my mom, among other things.

Well, to make a long story short, one of those locations (the one closer to where we were) was closed for renovations, and when we eventually got to the other one, they didn't have everything on my mom's list. So it was only a partially successful mission. Also, I don't like Goldilocks anymore. Maybe it's because my baked goods palate has been thoroughly spoiled, maybe the quality just isn't as good as when it's fresh out of the oven. But the last few times I've had Goldilocks, I've found it to be kind of dry and bland. I bought a variety of tart that day that I remember really loving as a kid, but it just didn't do it for me this time around. My mom was happy with what I brought back for her though and asked why I didn't bring more :P

brightly coloured cellophane wrappers - distinctly Goldilocks

Side note: My preferred "pasalubong" (souvenir) from the Philippines these days is Quickmelt Bakeshop's Ensaymada, which can be microwaved back to its original melty buttery sugary cheesy goodness. Yes, I know the cheese sounds weird, but it's a fairly common Filipino dessert topping, and it's surprisingly good! I'm going to have to do a full post on Filipino baked goods and desserts some day.

Anyway, that night we just went out to Moxie's for wings and beer. They have this crazy special that while the Vancouver Canucks are playing, a pound of wings is like $2 or $3 (can't remember off the top of my head) which we definitely took advantage of. Moxie's also has 2 very decent house beers (Euro Lager and Amber Ale) brewed by Big Rock Brewery in Calgary, which we got a couple pitchers of. I loved having beer and wings with Carm and Will. Always brings me back to nights at West End and 104 :)

The following morning we slept in (which we actually hadn't done the whole trip) and packed up to be ready for our flight that afternoon. But of course, we had time to squeeze in one more delicious meal. Me, Will, Carm's roommate and his roommate's girlfriend met up with Carm for lunch and we ate once again at La Brasserie. This time, I left all prudence behind and went big! Carm and I went halfsies on the Brasserie burger, and their lunch special: a chicken sandwich with gravy, plus salad and a yummy mushroom soup.

Brasserie burger featuring aged white cheddar, bacon, crispy onions, and truffle aioli

rotisserie chicken sandwich smothered in chicken jus gravy with crispy onions

SO GOOD!! The mushroom soup was especially yum because it wasn't heavy and creamy, but still had a lovely rich flavour from the mushrooms. Their house-made ketchup was outstanding as well, we asked what they made it with and they mentioned a few key ingredients that I can't remember anymore :( Trust me though, it was delish. La Brasserie is another must-eat in Vancouver... and if you go, indulge!!

Will's cold beer AND french press coffee :)

With that last deeply satisfying meal, our trip to Vancouver had come to an end. After hanging out at the apartment and digesting a bit, we were off to the airport and back to the cold, cold YYZ. As you can probably tell, I had a blast eating and drinking my way through the city, as well as appreciating the beautiful scenery and active lifestyle. I'm halfway convinced to move there. For now, I'll be looking forward to my next visit :) Shout outs to Carm, and his roommates, for being awesome hosts!!