French Dip Sandwich Part 2: The Hat

How do you make a sloppy sandwich look sexy? I tried my best, but somethings are just fubar.

With locations throughout the Greater L.A. region, The Hat is an established chain of deli sandwich eateries. Well-known for their "World Famous Pastrami", The Hat always has a line of hungry customers waiting to order up. But if I remember correctly, I never cared much for The Hat. The food seemed bland.

Growing up in Simi Valley, I occasionally went to The Hat for their chili cheese fries, but not much else. As a kid with immature taste buds, I never really appreciated a hot sandwich until I was older. So tonight, I decided to give The Hat another try.

After waiting in line, outside, on a dark corner in Alhambra, I ordered a French Dip sandwich with au jus; and it came immediately. Very convenient. However, I found the sandwich to be very lackluster. Its construction was sloppy, and it lacked the heaping mounds of roast beef that you would expect in a hearty sandwich. For $7.50, it was disappointing. But with that said, I ate the whole thing. +1 for au jus.

Next time, I'll just remember to order the chili cheese fries instead.

The Hat
1 W. Valley Blvd.
Alhambra, CA 91801

Frostbites Crepes & Frozen Delights

Jamba Juice, Robeks, Pinkberry, Yogurtland... Let the crepes and Italian ice/custard craze begin...

Out of focus. Dang it.

Out of focus. Again?

Frostbites Crepes & Frozen Delights
9111 Valley View St. Suite 103
Cypress, CA 90630

Playboy Bunny Artwork

Last week, I was testing out my new Canon S95. I'm pretty happy with how the video turned out; and I look forward to making more of these videos in the future.


Making of Playboy Bunny from Dan Lam on Vimeo.

Jim Lee's ICONS Art Book

When I was 9 years old, I noticed that kids would come to school with binders full of comic cards. I would watch them make deals with each other before, during, and after school; and I had to get in on the action. Usually, a kid would call dibs on his favorite comic character, and you knew you couldn't trade for certain cards in a kid's collection. All the kids liked Wolverine and Spiderman, but my favorite character (and still is today) was Gambit. It was easier for me to get what I wanted.

A year later, my school banned comic cards; and the kids moved onto comicbooks. So I ventured deeper into the comicbook store, and bought my first comicbook - X-Men #21. Gambit looked grittier than his usual suave appearance, so I became more curious about back issues that the animated cartoon was based off of. Next, I bought X-Men #8 with Bishop, Gambit, and Rogue on the cover, drawn by none other than Jim Lee himself. I was so impressed with art that I had to buy all of the other Jim Lee issues.

For the next few years, I bought X-Men, WildC.A.T.s, Stormwatch, and other comicbooks. Whatever Jim Lee was drawing at the time, I was reading it. But once I reached high school, I grew tired of collecting.

During my senior year of high school, I got serious about drawing, and referred to all my old comic books as supplement. Since then, I've been buying comicbooks here and there, trying to become a more versatile artist.

With the release of ICONS: The DC and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee, I can die happy. This is a collected anthology of Jim Lee's work from 1992 to 2010, after drawing for Marvel Comics. The book contains many of Lee's pencil drawings and sketches; and it's divided by the various book titles that Lee had worked on. I only wished it had dived deeper into Lee's drawing process. Enjoy the images...