Deep End Decade: Celebrate Weird Food Los Angeles with DineLA's Restaurant Week! January 20 through 31.

Caviar Causa at Mo-Chica in Downtown LA.

Hey friends and fans, Deep End Dining is celebrating its tenth year of existence this year 2014! Can you believe it??!! Be a Belieber — speaking of which, Justin Bieber was only 10 when this blog was born!

It's true. Deep End Dining has been around for ten years! That's the big 1-0! Established in 2004! An eternity on the internet. Napster was king back then and there was no Twitter or Facebook! But I was just getting warmed up. Not sure where this epicurean adventure would lead. Eating up Los Angeles before it became one of the best food cities in the world.

Sure, I've been slacking here and there, especially around years 8 and 9. But, hey, I've been busy with other things like appearing on the TV and producing and hosting a YouTube show called Kamikaze Kitchen with fellow weird food aficionado Val Herrera of Trippy Food.

And ever since I started singing the virtues of weird food, offals, the entrees less ordered, and other odd eats, I've noticed how weird food has slithered its way into the main stream. Now more and more popular restaurants are incorporating interesting ingredients like beef tongue and pig's head into their menus. On top of that, unique albeit ancient techniques such as fermentation are now being employed in-house by more kitchens around town. This is all very exciting for an adventure eater like me. And, in some ways, I'd like to think I was a small influence on this weird food revolution AND eating evolution. Nay, I AM the reason why tastes have changed to the extreme in LA, DAMMIT!!

Last week I started promoting DineLA Restaurant Week on Twitter, but I'm especially excited to announce a list of LA restaurants that have included a bit of exotic edibles on their DineLA offerings. There are a lot of intriguing dishes to be tasted. Go out and try some of them. Dive in deep and eat like a Deep End Diner!

Escargot ‘poppers’ – Abigaile
Crispy apricot scented frog legs – Areal
Crispy beef tongue terrine or Berkshire pork cheek ragout – Bar and Kitchen
Pan roasted stuff Vermont quail – Jiraffe
Coniglio veronese – half rabbit braised and baked – Locanda Veneta
Caviar causa – Mo-Chica
Lengua and lamb belly – Border Grill Santa Monica
Rabbit & pistachio terrine - Waterloo & City
Cured pig’s head - Scratch|Bar
Chiang Rai "bitter" larb of beef & beef bile, Isan liver ceviche - Night+Market

Dine LA Restaurant Week is from January 20 to 31.