THE GLUTTON
Some people double fist beers. The Glutton double fists crepes. Savory in one hand, sweet in the other. Which brings us to the oddly named Crepe in the Grip, Alhambra’s improbable hub of culinary fusion, where melding Western foodstuffs with Japanese cuisine reaches provocative heights and stomach-befuddling lows.
Amid cross-cultural hybrids like the “mushrooms yummy crepe” and the Taiwan-style crepe (full of delicious meat floss!), the item that most piqued the Glutton’s palette was the hot dog crepe. Like a Saturn with blinged-out spinners, this ballpark staple gussied up in a crepe wrapper seems more than a little wrong. But Crepe in the Grip makes the May-December romance work.
The hot dog crepe begins with a thin, freshly made pancake heaped with crisp iceberg lettuce, thick slices of raw onion, slivers of tomato, black sesame seeds and “special mayo.” Buried amid this glorious mess are snippets of bacon and sizable chunks of hot dog. It’s everything you might expect -- rich and quite bizarre -- but also surprisingly tasty.
But let’s check the sweetness in my other hand: the cheesecake crepe. Sweet fancy Moses, it’s a wedge of cheesecake the size of a Volkswagen shoved into a crepe drizzled with jam and whipped cream. More absurdist art project than appetizing dessert, the Glutton can at least appreciate a way to eat cheesecake with your hands.