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Take it or Make it 

Welcome to Take it or Make it, Highlight’s guide to quarantine food outside and at home. Each month, we will make one homemade dish and compare it to a takeout meal. For September, Emma and Candice make cornbread to prepare for fall, while Eva orders some breakfast food to cling on to summer memories. 

Recipe of the Month: How to Make Cornbread

You can visit Emma and Candice’s recipe here.

Rooster delights in early-morning eats

Stalwarts of classic breakfasts, like John O’Groats and the Original Pantry Cafe, have held the reins on LA breakfast for eons. With the rise of fusion cuisine and food truck eats, more and more people are seeking out new ways to eat old classics.
Which brings us to The Rooster. A food truck turned brick and mortar, this tiny spot on Pico was founded by former “Cutthroat Kitchen” winner Rouha Sadighi. Sadighi, according to the Rooster website, has a “passion” for breakfast, which is fitting for her menu chock-full of tater tots, eggs and all the bacon you could ever want.
The small menu boasts eight breakfast items and three lunch meals, each clearly fitting the laid-back vibe of the restaurant. While the menu items do vary in style and taste, the majority of them use the same or very similar ingredients, which could be a drawback for picky eaters. Even so, the menu is flexible. Meal alterations are allowed, but substitutions are tough due to the size of the menu.
The restaurant space, just like the menu and staff, is very tiny, which is why take-out is a recommended option. The ambiance of the setting is hip, but not overly-welcoming. The place was clearly set up with the intention that most of their customers would eat at home and not in-house, which shows in the condensed and cramped layout of the space. There is probably enough room to comfortably fit a group of four.
I ordered the Rico Suave, a dish the menu calls “The dopest of all breakfast burritos.” And that it is. The flour tortilla filled with bacon, eggs, tater tots, cilantro crema, cheddar and cotija cheese with salsa on the side is absolutely delicious, if a little heavy. The usual “burrito fatigue” when each bite tastes different due to uneven distribution of filling is nowhere to be found. There was a perfect blend of each individual aspect in every taste. I opted to pour a bit of salsa on each bite, which only added to the familiar, yet unique flavor pallet. You can clearly tell that each item is of the highest quality just by tasting it. A cross-section of the burrito shows vibrant colors that look straight out of a Crayola box, demonstrating just how clean and fresh every element of the meal is.
Even though the meal is fresh, it was super heavy. I ended up drinking a few glasses of water, just to counteract how filling it was. The burrito size is pretty gigantic, with its width being about the size of a fist. However, this was to be expected, looking at the menu. Even with its fattening drawbacks, this meal is amazing and I will definitely order from this restaurant again.
 
You can find The Rooster at 8809 West Pico Boulevard.
Follow them on Instagram @theroosterla.