Odysseys in eating

In most large cities there may be a Chinatown or a little Italy, but in LA there is a little everything. Little Ethiopia, Korea town, Little Armenia, etc. Over the past few months living here in LA I have had a number of interesting eating experiences. This has included Ethiopian, Mongolian BBQ, Korean, which is completely different from Korean BBQ, fondue, trendy hamburgers (quite possibly the best ever), Japanese, sketchy yet tasty Chinese beef rolls, chicken and waffles soul food, Polish, Middle Eastern fusion (belly dancers included), and possibly more (I'm not sure that I remember everything).

The latest excursion included Japanese noodles followed by Pinkberry. I got hot soba (buckwheat) noodles with spinach, fishcake, and fried rice balls in Tokyo style broth. I really liked the flavor of the slightly sweet and savory broth and soba noodles with spinach, but the fishcake and rice balls were rather odd. The fishcake was a thin half moon sliver that almost looked like a radish slice, as it was pink on the edge and white in the middle. It didn't even really taste like fish. The rice balls were light and fluffy on the outside, but seemed to contain rice toothpaste on the inside. However, the noodle-broth-spinach combo more than made up for the strange fishcake and rice balls. Afterwards, we all realized we could still eat more, and there was a Pinkberry in between the Japanese restaurant and our parking garage. Frozen yogurt is very LA. There are numerous frozen yogurt joints all around the greater LA area, and Pinkberry is perhaps the most popular at the moment. It is a very simple yet brilliant business model. One main flavor, although I believe they've recently added two others, and fresh fruit toppings in addition to standard ice cream toppings. I had the original flavor with raspberries, mango, and chocolate chips. It was unlike any flavor I'd ever had before. It was a slightly sour lemony flavor with undertones of strawberry and other flavors I couldn't quite detect. It was quite tasty.