Cork and Rind

Check out Marcel Vigneron Cooking for Me on SyFy's Marcel's Quantum Kitchen

2011-04-05T16:03:00.001-07:00

Dine: Nawab of India

2011-03-07T01:20:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I believe LA offers no great Indian options. As a kid growing up, my parents fed me and my brother a myriad of cuisines, some weirder than others, some stinkier than others. But one cuisine which appeared both on the dinner table at home, and fulfilled restaurant nights out, was Indian. I've visited a slew of Indian eateries around LA and even dragged skeptical diners to the likes of Artesia (aka Little India) on several occasions.

I do very much enjoy Nirvana in Beverly Hills, Bombay Palace across the street is owned by the same family and offers a more shmancy upscale affair, then there are local haunts like Gate of India and Tandoor India which I've visited many a time. Oh, actually, one fantastic Indian market and shop (there are a few locations) that I would highly recommend is Indian Sweets and Spices, which supplied many ingredients for my Indian-themed dinner a while back.

Anyway, as I am always up for trying something new, I recently hit up Nawab on Wilshire since it's in my hood and came highly recommended from my best friend who just happens to be Indian. Decor-wise, not much going on not much to discuss. So, onward to edibles.

We started off with some rather tasty poppadoms, then ordered garlic naan, yellow dal, saag paneer, chicken tikka, a house special lamb dish, gulab jamin, plus one mango lassi to top it all off. Overall I thought the chicken tikka was delicious, juicy and perfectly cooked, and the lamb was quite tasty as well served in a thick tomato curry topped with shredded egg (odd?).

I was totally psyched for the dal since I love lentils, but I found this yellow dal to be lackluster and devoid of taste. Saag paneer was fine, nothing to praise or complain about, and the garlic naan was delicious stuffed with silky roasted garlic.

I don't normally care for very sweet desserts, but for some odd reason I absolutely love Indian desserts especially gulab jamin which I have actually made before and which happens to be very VERY sweet. Here the confectionary was just as expected, slightly dry, slightly chewy with the right amount of sweetened rose water.

Nawab of India
1621 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(310) 829-1106

Dine: Brunch at The Tasting Kitchen

2011-03-06T02:03:00.000-08:00

I simply adore The Tasting Kitchen on Abbot Kinney, and despite the fact that I capped off my Friday night there with a late night dinner, I returned again Sunday morning for brunch. The restaurant only started serving weekend brunch about a month or so ago, and ever since then I've been meaning to check it out. So... the menu. I was very confused. I literally had to read it over about five times to fully understand what was happening and it took me a good ten minutes to decide on my order. First offense, no cappuccino. Only French press coffee, at least they brew Four Barrel out of San Fran, so that had to suffice. Second offense, no fresh oj. Third offense, no fresh grapefruit juice (despite the fact that the table next to us ordered two glasses...apparently "the bar literally only had enough for two glasses...I am SOO sorry." Right.

Back to the menu. Since I eat out almost every single night, I would have to say I am pretty good with menus. Seriously though, I picked this one up and was very very befuddled. There is a savory and sweet waffle situation, the diner must assume that "cluck" is chicken. There's this whole egg section and a meat section, both are completely nondescript literally it just says "steak." So, I am getting a slab of meat with...nothing? I really don't even know. And what the hell is an "egg board"?? A cheeseboard but with eggs? ANYWAY, I opted for marinated veggies with a soft boiled egg, of course the type of veg was a surprise to me since "marinated veggies" was all the menu would share. I got a little bit annoyed and didn't bother asking exactly what type of veggies were on the plate...and figured I like vegetables so it would be what it would be.

I ended up with a plate of cold eggplant and broccolini alongside a partially sliced soft-boiled egg, and while I will say the veggies were delicious -- my guess is they were roasted in the oven with olive oil, vinegar, chili flakes and a pinch of salt -- my egg was cold and I think there is nothing more gross then cold running egg yolk. I do love warm running egg yolk but cold -- it kinda takes on the consistency of, gooey snot (yeah I went there), I simply don't understand the decision to serve that egg cold. If that egg had been served warm, it would have been a great plate.

Since The Tasting Kitchen prides itself on farm to table cuisine, I will definitely come back to check out more of the (warm) menu.

The Tasting Kitchen
1633 Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Venice, CA 90291-3744
(310) 392-6644

Bites and Sips: Shangri-la, Harvard & Stone, Poke Poke, Le Saint Amour, One Pico, Go Burger, Hostaria, Crust

2011-02-24T23:25:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Hotel Shangri-la launched its new cocktail menu conceived my new barman Cole Apodaca (Santa Monica's best kept secret). Check out his alluring Berry Apropos comprised of St. Germain, Black Razz Belvedere, white cranberry, Champagne, fresh berries, and dry ice.

Pablo Moix's Trinidad Sour at my newest obsession, Harvard & Stone. Seriously, this is LA's next best bar, understated industrial cool, hip, with a cozy fire hole. Yup, indoor fire hole. Love. It.

LA's best donuts from Zelda's Corner Deli in Venice.

Hawaiian tuna sashimi from Poke Poke just off the Venice Boardwalk.

Not only was I pleasantly surprised by Hotel Shangri-la's cocktails, the food there is actually really great as well. The Hotel's ground floor restaurant is a total undiscovered gem. Above, roasted lobster with Brussels sprouts.

Beet salad from One Pico inside Shutters, Santa Monica.

Go Burger's duck fat fries, Hollywood.

Beautiful Pear brulee from Hostaria del Piccolo, Santa Monica.

Crust Bakery's Saltine cracker brittle.

An assortment of house-made terrines from Le Saint Amour, Culver City.

Cook: Roasted Romanesco Broccoli

2011-02-23T23:05:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, for a change, I ate at home. After a quick stop at Whole Foods I scooped a gorgeous head of Romanesco broccoli, which is really more closely related to cauliflower, and with that we whipped up quinoa tossed with diced tomatoes, feta, Meyer lemon, and parsley, plus some steamed kale with a squeeze of Meyer lemon. I am a big Meyer lemon fan and if there is one piece of fruit that I ALWAYS have in my fruit basket, it's either lemons on Meyer lemons (and actually seasonal Persian limes too recently). My roasted cauliflower or broccoli dish is a tried and true classic I've been making for years, my friends now recreate this recipe at home, even my parents adopted it. Plus, with Romanesco now in season, this dish is even more delicious. Basically, you are just roasting the Romanesco in olive oil with some red pepper flakes, then when it comes out of the oven, a dusting of Parmesan finishes this dish. Try it out:

Roasted Romanesco

1 head Romanesco (or regular broccoli or cauliflower)
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
pinch red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash Romanesco, then separate into florets. Lay florets on baking sheet and toss with olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Add red pepper flakes and toss to coat. Place baking sheet in oven and bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven and mix Romanesco. Return to oven and cook for 10 more minutes until florets begin to turn golden. Remove from oven, transfer to serving dish, and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Judging A Bobby Flay / Jimmy Kimmel Throwdown

2011-02-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

Bites and Pieces: Toranoko, Chaya, Baby Blues

2011-01-30T18:54:00.001-08:00

No surprise I've been eating a lot lately, bites and sips from my latest adventures. For anyone that hasn't yet visited Toranoko, GO! If you like Lazy Ox, you will heart Toranoko, similar vibe with a Japanese focus.

Cocktails at Toranoko.

Udon at Toranoko.

Assorted cocktails at Toranoko.

Yanagita Seafarms Uni Goma Tofu at Toranoko.

Owner Michael Cardenas over right. He's SUCH a muffin.

This plate from Chaya Brasserie is off the menu but includes seared magret duck, baby shiitake mushrooms, hidden foie, pickled radish plus greens, candied citrus from the farmers market.

Shmancy chicken soup aka chicken consomme with foie gras ravioli.

Black truffle cream cheese at Chaya Brasserie.

Green tea fettuccine with bolognese.

Tabletop at Baby Blues BBQ.

Fried okra at Baby Blues BBQ.

Library Bar Revisited

2011-01-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

[Greg mixing his Yellow Bell]

At this point I've written about my favorite watering hole, Library Bar in the Roosevelt, probably 100 times. And the reason I can continue to revisit this bar and continue to write about it is because every time I am there it's a whole new experience. I don't think I have EVER gone to Library Bar and had the same drink twice (unless I specifically asked for a repeat), and I seriously have been there now about 50 times if not more since I first discovered it almost a year and a half ago.

[Matt's horseradish creation]

I trust the men behind that bar at Libs. I never tell them what I want, rather they tell me what I want. Whether it's Matt, Greg, Ryan, or Chris (sorry that I didn't remember we met before!), each knows how to mix and muddle the farmers market bounty that sweeps the bartop. This week I spotted currants, strawberry guavas, salmon berries, finger limes, sososososo much good stuff happening here. Also, a great way to get extra vitamins via cocktails (seriously)!

Annddddd I simply adore savory cocktails (check out the horseradish up up above) ...cocktails that are less sweet such as Matt's Bloody Mary (it's beyond epic with layered tomatoes from the farmers market)...and a tomato basil creation which I make all the time at home. Here's a salty seaweed creation by Matt.

Something Greg created for me, so pretty!

Library Bar in the Roosevelt
7000 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028

A Mediterranean-Style Dinner Party

2011-01-28T21:49:00.000-08:00

I recently decided to host a dinner party chez moi along with the help of a friend. I hit the SM farmers market that morning with a Mediterranean-themed menu in mind, followed by a trip to Andrew's Cheese Store on Montana.

I scooped some delicious dates at the market, which I stuffed with this ridiculous blue cheese (wish I remembered the name). I roasted the bundles for about 10 minutes and voila, the easiest, yummiest app slightly more interesting than a cheese plate.

A few weeks prior I had acquired a jar of my newest obsession, candied wild hibiscus flowers, these purple-magenta gems I added to coupe glasses and topped with Henriot rose. The hibiscus flowers imbue the Champagne with a hint of sweetness like a Kir and also add a pale pink tinge (hello Valentine's Day). The flowers also appear to effortlessly float in the glass which looks just oh so pretty. Love.

Meanwhile, I marinated the lamb for a few hours in red wine, ginger, fresh tangerine juice, cumin, corriander seeds and cilantro, then roasted it until a lovely medium-rare. We served this along with mashed chickpeas spiked with cilantro, roasted garlic, and caramelized onions. Instead of mashed potatoes, mashed chickpeas, a healthier alternative. Great switcheroo.

We threw together a salad with baby arugula, shaved fennel, pomegranate seeds (I bought a white pomegranate), and crispy prosciutto, and finally mini baby eggplants sauteed until silky smooth with tomatoes and basil.

For dessert, a super serious Bon Appetit torte which essentially just calls for chocolate, eggs, cream, and sugar (doesn't get much better than that!). This dessert is called La Bete Noir which translates into "The Black Beast," and is basically just like eating a block of rich and creamy dark chocolate. A most appropriate name. I suggest serving this with a dollop of unsweetened heavy cream and some fresh berries.

Drink: Rose Pepper Smash

2011-01-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

Tonight, to celebrate the launch of Jersey Shore, I threw a cocktail party. Mini cocktail party. HELLO it's Jersey Shore! I made a version of Hyde's Love Unit (muddled red bell peppers, basil, fresh grapefruit juice, fresh lime juice, and gin), and then I stumbled upon this bottle of rose syrup I've been meaning to play with. SO, I combined rose syrup with grapefruit juice and gin (could sub in vodka) and crushed sweet pink peppercorns atop. The peppercorns not only look pretty, but the flavor of the peppercorns plus the rose pair perfectly together.

Rose Pepper Smash
1 ounce rose syrup
2 ounces fresh grapefruit juice
2 ounces gin (or vodka)
crushed pink peppercorns

Shake rose syrup, grapefruit juice, and gin together. Serve up in a coupe glass and garnish with crushed pink peppercorns.

Christmas Dinner Chez Moi

2010-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

Every year, Christmas dinner is a situation. As in, preparations start three days in advance with my dad brining a turkey. For the past few years his brine of choice has included soy, mirin, ginger, sesame oil, garlic, scallions, star anise...basically an Asian-inspired brine. At this point, three days out, I am just beginning to consider my contributions.

The day of, I generally wake up after noon to classical music blaring from the kitchen plus sounds of clanking pots and pans. Every once in a while there is a "VLASTA!" which means my dad is yelling at my mom who is probably picking at his caramelized onions or toasted walnuts.

It's still too early to break out the vino (or is it? according to my aunt, no), at this point I sleepily stumble into the kitchen asking for some sort of breakfast. Next, I am informed that we have no food to eat (putting aside the fact that the fridge, both the upstairs and downstairs one, is jam-packed, but all those lovely gooey cheeses, cold cuts, foie gras (if we serve it that year)...are NOT for me, rather for dinner which will probably commence around 6PM. Knowing my fam they will tell guests to expect to eat at 7PM, but the turkey will usually take longer than expected, so add on an extra 30 minutes.

First, I make myself a cappuccino (or two), then continue on with a papaya or some toast. This year I think I just went with cold macrobiotic soba noodles I bought the night before anticipating this situation. Such a great call.

Finally I am somewhat awake, which means it's time to start cooking. Since I started preparing recipes the night before, my cookies are finished, though I still have two savories and a dessert I planned to prepare. I also wanted to make a Nancy Silverton Buttermilk Crackers recipe (I actually bought this cookbook when I was in middle school not even knowing who NS was), but I ran out of time.

First order of business, finish my chocolate tart, which means rolling out the dough, making the filling, baking only the crust, adding the filling, then popping the whole thing into the freezer to firm up. Somewhere in there, factor in some worry about the recipe and the filling not solidifying (I didn't have the exact proportions and had to guesstimate).

K, tart is in the freezer. Next, moving right along to my Brussels sprouts. Peel off outer leaves and wash, sautee pancetta, remove pancetta from drippings, sautee BS in pancetta oil. Add fresh roasted chestnuts, thyme, pancetta, cream, and maple syrup. Hm, 1/4 cup, is this dish going to be too sweet? Ugh, hope not.

Brussels sprouts are on the sweeter side, note to self use only 1/8 cup maple syrup next time. Still delish though. On to the gratin. Recruit my brother Peter to peel squash for me, meanwhile I break out a baking sheet and start cubing the squash. Add to baking sheet, toss with S and P and olive oil, into the oven until golden. Meanwhile, sautee leeks, place half of leeks in bottom of baking dish. Top with roasted squash, add chevre, more leeks, squash, chevre (at this point Peter interjects saying, "hm, it's like a pasta-less vegetarian lasagna"), heavy cream, and toasted hazelnuts on top. Oven.

Meanwhile, my dad is dealing with the turkey, cranberries, potatoes, my mom is arranging cheese for guests, then preparing the table.

No time for crackers, bff Wes shows up with a rather unique bottle of vodka (just what I need) where you can actually program greetings to run on the bottle (another post), shower time for me.. Christmas 2010.

Also recounted on LA Weekly.

Bake: Sam's Mom's Raspberry Coconut Bars

2010-12-26T16:50:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas, one of my bffs, Sam, brought over these bars made from raspberry jam and toasted coconut. She told me it was a famous recipe of her mother's and this year, for the first time ever, she attempted to recreate the bars on her own. To great success. By the next day only one bar remained, and I ate it.

So, I asked Sam for the recipe which she immediately emailed me, and today, again, I baked. This recipe is super simple and takes only about 15 minutes to throw together. You pat the dough into a baking sheet, add jam (next time I am going to try this with my grandmother's homemade apricot jam) crumble the remaining dough, and add more coconut. Oven it up, and 20 minutes later, freshly baked fruit bars. Yummmmmmy.

Sam's Mom's Raspberry Coconut Bars

1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold, unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats (not instant)
3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam (or other jam of your choice)

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Spread 3/4 cup coconut evenly on a baking sheet and toast in the middle of oven, stirring once, until golden, about 8 minutes. Cool.

Adjust oven to 375 degrees.

Blend together flour, sugars, and salt in processor. Add butter and blend until a dough begins to form. Transfer to bowl and knead in oats and toasted coconut until combined well.

Reserve 3/4 cup of dough. Press remainder evenly into bottom of buttered 13 x 9" metal baking pan and spread jam over it.

Crumble reserved dough evenly over jam, then sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup untoasted coconut.

Bake in middle of oven until golden, 20-25 minutes. Cool completely on a pan or rack. Loosen from sides of pan with sharp knife. Lift out in 1 piece and transfer to cutting board. Cut into 24 bars.

Bake: Akasha's Salted Chocolate Tart

2010-12-24T21:55:00.001-08:00

I don't remember when exactly I first set foot in Akasha, it was sometime after the restaurant first opened, so maybe about three-ish years ago. Anyway, I do remember sitting down (starved) and devouring that mini loaf of seed-flecked challah-esque bread that is temptingly placed on every table, actually I think I went through two of those. Super happened.

One of the highlights of that meal was owner Akasha Richmond's insanely delicious salted chocolate tart which she serves with this chocolate hemp ice cream. At the time I was able to procure the tart recipe, but the hemp ice cream she wouldn't part with (you also need a Pacojet to make it, apparently).

In the restaurant I believe Akasha makes this tart vegan using soy products in place of dairy, but I switched it up, adding dairy, so the below recipe is my take on her dessert.

Akasha Richmond's Salty Chocolate Tart (adapted)

Crust

4 oz organic palm shortening or unsalted butter
2 oz sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons hot water
.75 oz cocoa powder
6 oz unbleached all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Additional flour for rolling the dough

Filling

8 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream

Topping

1/8 cup honey
1 teaspoon fleur de sel

Lightly sweetend whip cream on the side

For crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the shortening, butter and sugar for 3 to 4 minutes, until very well blended. Slowly add vanilla and hot water.

Sift cocoa powder, flour and salt together. Fold dry ingredients with a rubber spatula into the creamed mixture, mixing until just incorporated, being careful not to over mix. Form mixture into a 6-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Roll out dough 1/8-inch thick with a floured rolling pin into a 9- or 10-inch tart pan on a lightly floured surface, then fit into tart pan. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang inward and press against side of pan to reinforce edge. Chill 30 minutes. Bake for 11-13 minutes. Let cool.

For the filling:

In a saucepan, scald milk and cream. Pour over chopped chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute and then whisk until smooth. Add additional 2 tablespoons milk. Pour into cooled tart shell. Let cool in the refrigerator for 2- to 3 hours or until set.

To finish tart:

Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with salt. Serve with lightly sweetened whip cream.

Bake: Candy Cane Cookies

2010-12-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Before I was old enough to go to camp, my mom deported me, during balmy summer days, to our neighbor up the block's house. Our neighbor had this kind of "camp" situation...like a craft camp for kids and maybe like 15 or so would take over her house Monday through Friday July-August. I also happened to be friends with her daughter so for me in was good fun, now in hindsight it's kinda weird. But whatever.

Anyway, what I remember from those days was...quite obviously food (major shocker). I remember grape-flavored Kool-Aid poured from a frosty plastic pitcher into those wax Dixie cups. I think that's where I developed an affinity for grape-flavored foods which carries out to this very day (hello...that yummy muddled grape cocktail at Fraiche, and grape kombucha).

As part of the "camp" we would do all sorts of crafty Martha Stewart-y things, some of which included cooking (my fave). Once we made gummy bear cookies which seriously, if I had that recipe I would make them all the time. I LOVE gummy bears (but they have to be Haribo) and in the oven the bears would melt into a colorful rainbow upon their sugar cookie base. Those were rad.

[Tip: Add used vanilla beans to jars of sugar to impart extra vanilla flavor.]

We also would make these candy cane cookies, yeah it totally was not even close to the holidays, but for whatever reason candy cane cookies it was! Imagine a pretty simple sugar cookie dough but instead of granulated sugar it called for powdered sugar and some almond extract for a nutty flavor. We would make the dough, divide it into two batches, add red food coloring to one batch (we always added too much color, just a few drops goes a looooong way) which would also inevitable stain our hands from the next two days.

Next we would roll out the dough, twist the red and white ropes together and form a candy cane. On to a baking sheet and into the oven. Nine minutes later, perfectly finished cookies which we would then cover in more powdered sugar for "snow."

I don't necessarily consider myself a baker since I cook just as much savory as sweet, but when it comes to baking, long recipes annoy me. Like, when dough needs to chill for 30 minutes or an hour, when it needs to rise for four hours, ugh really? I cut corners in situations like these. SO, when cookies need just nine minutes to bake, aha perfect, just my speed.

Because the holidays are like, now, I thought it high time to recreate those lovely candy cane cookies which I haven't made in quite some time. In typical me form I accidentally bought whole wheat pastry flour today in place of regular pastry flour, so I guess that means my cookies are just extra healthy, enjoy!

Candy Cane Cookies

2.5 cups a.p. flour (or pastry flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1.5 teaspoons almond extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

red food coloring
powdered sugar (garnish)

Preheat the oven to 375° and grease two cookie sheets. Whisk the flour and salt together.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Slowly stir in the flour mixture. Once mixed, divide your dough in two and add the food coloring (about 4 drops) to one batch until well-combined and uniformly red.

At this point you should have one batch of red dough and one of white. Roll about 1 tablespoon of each dough into roll about 5 inches long. Twist the two colors together and form a candy cane.

Place each candy cane on your cookie sheet. Continue forming cookies until you use up all the dough. Bake for 9 minutes. Remove from oven. While the cookies are still warm, sprinkle all over with powdered sugar.

Bake: Toasted Almond and Saffron Biscotti

2010-12-21T22:48:00.000-08:00

This evening I started sorting though my old Saveur magazines (dating back to 2003 and 2004) looking for a specific Bouche de Noel recipe I was thinking about organizing for my family's upcoming Christmas feast. While scanning the issues I came across a recipe for almond and saffron biscotti, simple enough and rather user friendly.

Whenever I am home (NY), especially around the holidays, I go into super cooking mode, and tonight had a hankering to bake. Oddly enough I've never made biscotti before, so even though the recipe was incredibly simple, it posed a challenge because I was delving in new cookie domain.

Biscotti are So easy to make! Serious. Just mix a few ingredients together, roll the dough into logs, bake, cut, bake and doneski.

Toasted Almond and Saffron Biscotti

3 1/2 cups a.p. flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 pinches saffron
1 cup almonds, toasted
3 whole eggs
1 egg yolk

Preheat oven to 325°F. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, saffron. Add 2 whole eggs plus yolk. Mix. Turn onto counter and knead dough. Divide into four parts, roll each section into a flat log.
Whisk together remaining egg. Brush tops of logs with egg wash.

Bake 45 minutes until tops are golden. Remove logs from baking sheet, slice into 1/2-inch thick pieces and return to baking sheet. Bake biscotti an additional 35 minutes until brown.

Dine: Shima in Venice

2010-12-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

Everybody in LA has a favorite sushi spot, I personally am a traditionalist so I love Sushi Park, Sushi Zo, Kiyokawa, Asanebo, and Hiko. For some odd reason, Shima isn't on the sushi radar as much as it should be, and while I've eaten at the colorful modern restaurant on Abbot Kinney a handful of times in the past, up until recently the eatery didn't make my tops list.

A week or so ago Brad started freaking out to me about Shima and how it was the second best sushi restaurant in LA next to Asanebo, a personal favorite for both of us. He, however, loves Asanebo because of those little live crabs they serve which are deep fried just moments before they end up in your mouth.

Anyway, according to him I HAD to revist Shima, so the other night, amidst treacherous rain, we went over for dinner. First off, the space is absolutely adorable and tastefully done with a minimalist approach. Spots of color pop through the space from the bar stools to the colorful (vintage antique Bauer) plates stacked across the sushi bar.

We grabbed seats at the bar and our eating adventure began. However, before I get to details, I need to mention a few things. Shima serves brown rice sushi, makes its own soy sauce (which is INSANE), and grates fresh wasabi root in place of the paste/rehydrated powders that appear in restaurants across the city. Shima also serves NO meat and all desserts are vegan.

We started off with a personal favorite which is now in season, baby sweet shrimp served in coupe glasses topped with caviar.

Plate two consisted of lotus root wrapped around chevre, marinated Japanese spinach, salmon wrapped around sweet shrimp, king crab wrapped in cucumber, and this fish pate which wasn't my favorite. Too fishy pour moi.

Next came salmon sashimi with jalapeno, onion, and shiso, incredibly fresh, didn't have any of that fishy salmon taste that I despise.

Especially since it was cold and rainy outside I LOVED the delicate matsutake mushroom broth with matsutakes and one chewy ginkgo nut.

The next course was our favorite, a boiled lobster removed from its sell with hand-sliced accordion cucumbers, avocado, cilantro leaves, tossed in a zippy yuzu ponzu sauce- insanely delicious, craving this right now.

More sashimi, red snapped (as I recall) lightly seared with truffle oil, black truffles, ponzu, slivers of ginger, chives. YUM.

A live scallop (seared) in its own shell came next, followed by what I had been craving all night, simple sushi. Blue fin tuna, red snapper, yellow tail, giant clam, uni, and sweet shrimp. At this point we were both stuffed, though decided to split an uni/caviar roll to top it all off, our wonderful sushi chef obliged withoth batting an eye.

And finally, for dessert, a frozen coconut ice topped with sweet red beans, a chocolate pudding-esque sweet with granola and slivered almonds, and a bowl of fresh fruit with fraise de bois, persimmons, melon, gem pomegranate seeds and blueberries. Again, all vegan.

Little disclosure, omakase like this isn't cheap. To go for the fully monty expect to drop about $500 for two people, though ordering a la carte is a cheaper (still delicious) option.

Shima
1432 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice
310-314-0882

Bake: Bradley Ogden's Blue Corn Muffins

2010-11-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

Several months back I was wined and dined by Vegas, specifically hitting many eateries with the Harrah's portfolio. While on the trip I had a fantastic meal at Bradley Ogden, and one of the many highlights from the meal were these tiny sweet-savory blue corn muffins brought out with the bread service.

(team mascot looking for scraps)

Whenever I undergo a multi-course tasting menu, I mentally tell myself I am allowed to only TRY the bread, not eat it but TRY it. After (mildly) surviving many of these extensive dinners-- after eating, say three rolls, I definitely can't make it though all the courses, so I've learned my lesson. I am allowed to take a piece of bread and butter (or olive oil) to taste but no more than that. Unless of course, the bread is something special. For example at Guy Savoy not only did I try the tasting menu, but I also tried the bread tasting menu...aka a different bread brought out for each course. I mean HELLO, that's like two tasting menus in one. Not fair.

Anyway, we're talking Bradley Ogden here. Those mini blue corn muffins are out of this world. Slightly sweet, with loads of dill (if you don't so much care for dill, stop reading here), and kernels of fresh corn. Let's just say I ate more than one, and I wasn't the only one. Part sweet, part savory, all around addictive winners.

As we were leaving dinner we were granted a few of the recipes from the meal, and I've been meaning to recreate these small sensations at home. First problem, the recipe I was given was for a huge restaurant so I had to start by dividing the recipe by four and going from there. I wasn't sure if it would work because baking is such a science and halving a recipe (in this case quartering) doesn't always work...luckily for me it did.

Bradley Ogden's Blue Corn Muffins (adapted)

6.25 ounces a.p. flour
3 ounces sugar
2/3 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 Tablespoon baking soda
4 ounces blue corn flour (I used blue corn meal)
1/2 Tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

8 ounces sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/8 cup cream
3 whole eggs
4 ounces butter (melted)
1 cup fresh corn (I used frozen since corn is out of season)
1/2 cup freshly chopped dill

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Sift all dry ingredients together. Add dill, corn, salt, pepper.
Mix wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and fold until half incorporated. Fold in butter and mix until smooth.
Bake in buttered mini cupcake bolds until brown on top, about 25 minutes.

Thanksgiving Apple Tart

2010-11-25T21:51:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving I contributed several dishes and I definitely wanted to keep them all as seasonal as possible. I am not really into pumpkin pie, for the most part I feel like pumpkin pie is too...not real/fresh tasting...I mean...how many bakers out there are buying a pumpkin, roasting it, pureeing it...you get the point. SO, most turn to canned pumpkin which I don't love...it doesn't even look like real food when it comes out of the can (I checked today). Anyway, I did stumble upon this extra light pumpkin pie that calls for creme fraiche in the filling as well as for the topping and it's become a go-to for me. Even my non-pumkin pie-loving family is a big fan. Anyway, let's talk apples.

(apples bathing in butter mmmmmmmmm)

This is seriously the easiest dessert EVER. All you have to do is peel, core, and slice in half a bunch of apples. Then add sugar and butter to an oven-proof skillet, add the apples cut side up. Cook until caramel forms, about 30-40 minutes, add your dough atop and bake for 35 minutes. Voila! Right before serving you heat the bottom of the pan and then invert the whole thing onto a serving dish done. The recipe I followed was actually for an Italian apple tart, though to me it looks just like a tarte tatin. Either way, super easy, few ingredients, great way to impress guests.

Bake: Tom Colicchio's Parker House Rolls

2010-11-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Whenever holidays roll around, I am on dessert duty. Always always always. Which is fine by me since I love sweets, but lately I've been branching out into appetizers and breads. Although I cook a ton of savory at home (in LA), my dad always plays head chef. Also fine by me (I get lazy when I am home and love when my parents cook for me since they are great cooks). Anyway, Thanksgiving is right around the corner so naturally I've been brainstorming sweet contributions. So far I am making a pumpkin pie with creme fraiche topping, a caramelized apple tart, and I was deciding between these Parker House rolls from the November issue of Saveur or these insanely yummy blue corn muffins served at Bradley Ogden in Vegas.

I decided baking two bready things was highly unnecessary, so I am saving the blue corn muffins for The Giving and tonight I tried out Tom Colicchio's Parker House Rolls which he serves at Colicchio & Sons in NYC.

Ok so, here's the problem with me and baking. For the most part we are friends, but sometimes when dough needs to rise for an extended period of time, I get antsy and skips a few hrs, oops! So...that may or may not have happened this evening...

Anyway, the secret to these rolls is barley malt syrup. It's sold at Whole Foods (saw it in Venice), today I scooped up a jar at Fairway, it's like molasses but with a delicious malty flavor, would be great in or on ice cream or even in a milkshake, yum!

Coliccho & Sons Parker House Rolls
3/4 cup milk, heated to 115 °
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp barley malt syrup
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cup into cubes
1/4 cup clarified butter, for greasing and brushing
fleur de sel to garnish

Stir together milk, yeast, and malt syrup in a large bowl; let sit until foamy, 10 minutes. In a medium bowl whisk together flour and salt; add to milk mixture along with butter and stir with a wooden spoon until dough dorms. Transfer to lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth 5-6 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let sit until nearly double in size, about 1 hour. Uncover and punch down dough; cover and let sit until puffed, about 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 325°F. Portino dough into fourteen 1 1/2-diameter balls, and transfer to a grease 8-inch cast-iron skillet or 8-inch x 8-inch baking pan (I used round pan), nestling them side by side; cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit until double in size, about 2 hours. Brush with clarified butter and bake until puffed and pale golden brown, 20-22 minutes. Transfer to a rack and brush with more clarified butter; sprinkle each roll with a small pinch of fleur de sel and serve warm.

Dine: Sham, Santa Monica

2010-11-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

It's totally crazy that I have yet to write about Sham, in fact, I can't believe it. That's what my blog tells me, anyway. So, here it goes. B and I discovered Sham about three years ago, it was a fluke because I rarely search for random restaurants via MenuPages, but on this one given evening I was craving something ethnic in the Venice locale, so on a whim I decided we would try Sham for dinner. MAJOR score. A total diamond in the rough, a random unassuming Lebanese/Syrian experience with super fresh fare, freshly-baked housemade savory pastries, a delicious garlic sauce-- we were sold. Sham became a regular spot for us and even to this day I frequent the eatery at least once a month, plus it doesn't hurt that I live just two blocks away. Over time we've tried much of the menu. We always start with hummus (the one area that I think Sham could improve is with its pita bread), tabbouleh, cheese fattayer (when they run out of cheese we opt for spinach), falafel, sometimes we have a veggie like the favas spiked with garlic, olive oil, parsley, and lemon juice, and finally as an entree we share a plate of kebabs chicken skewers marinated in garlic sauce then roasted, plus beef skewered with tomatoes, onions, and peppers served with a dollop of garlicky garlic sauce (I love this stuff), a side salad, and some pickled turnips and cucumbers.

Since we started eating at Sham we've witnessed more than a dozen chef changes, therefore just a heads up that sometimes the meat is a bit dryer but other times it is absolutely perfectly cooked, juicy with garlic sauce or flavored with veggies. So it's no surprise that I took Midtown Lunch there a while back for a midday refuel where we sampled my newest obsession, pomegranate pizza! Yup, no joke.

A few months ago, maybe like eight months or so ago, Sham introduced Arabic pizzas. While they are all pretty solid (sometimes the crust gets soggy from too many toppings, just saying) I am utterly hooked on the Mouhummara pizza, a mix of roasted chili peppers (it's a tad bit hot but not much), walnuts, olive oil, tomato sauce, pomegranate molasses, and a bit of mozzarella. OMG. Tangy, sweet, earthy and creamy -- I am addicted.

Oh and two other important points to note. Sham has been offerings this to-go deal where you buy one of those Arabic pizzas (costs about $11ish) and the second one is free!
AND, you can score a rad dining discount gift certificate here.

Sham
716 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica
310-393-2913

Seasonal Elixirs at Library Bar

2010-11-21T21:33:00.001-08:00

My absolute favorite place to drink in LA is at Library Bar in the Roosevelt. I've written about the uber talented mix master Matt Biancaniello a zillion times over, but he constantly surprises me with delicious drinks, I literally don't think I've ever consumed the same beverage twice. I also have to give a high five to Ryan Green and Greg (sorry Greg, don't know your last time) who you will also find behind the bar on a given night, all talented mixologists crafting libations from the market's bounty. Down below, just a few creations I've been recently sipping:

Figgy Smalls

Peach and gin creation...

Muddled tomatoes, gin, basil, lemon, ss...

Hot and sweet, muddled tomatoes, hot peppers, tequila...

Muddled cherry situation...

Tip: Come on a Wednesday when Matt has a bar topped with farmers market goodies, it's the best night all week!

More Bites From Here and There

2010-11-21T12:18:00.001-08:00

Raw bar at Water Grill downtown.

Rosted ginkgo nuts at Kiriko.

Homemade sushi.

Indian dinner party.

Dinner party with friends.

I threw together this quick app using crostini that I topped with sharp provolone, freshly picked figs (I picked them), and a good aged balsamic.

Baked eggplant with garlic, pomegranate, cumin, cilantro.

Bites from Here and There

2010-11-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

Wow it has been WAY too long- for multiple reasons, mostly because I've been insanely busy, I haven't had an opportunity to write here but I am back! Also, I was hired as the food and nightlife editor of LA Canvas, so track my eats on their blog (and in the paper mag)...here!

Let's see...some recent eats:

Fried chickpeas from Beechwood.

Vanilla bean panna cotta with caviar and salted caramel from LudoBites 6.0.

Milk bao from Bao Dim Sum House

Cocktail tasting at 1886.

Panna cotta with carrot ice cream and fruit leather.

CRACK popcorn with seaweed, sesame seeds, butter, chili at A-Frame.

Assorted cutiepies from simplethings (opens Monday).

Hazelnut chocolate cookie sandwich from Eataly.

Mozzarella tasting at Obika.

Pizza from Cube.

Chewy tortilla chips with vanilla ice cream, cinnamon and powdered sugar at Tinga.

Veal tartare at Fraiche.

At the launch for new Moet Ice- drink this Champagne on the rocks.

Dine: Mariscos Chente

2010-08-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

It's probably a bad idea to write about food when you're really hungry, which is exactly what is happening right now. Just looking at these pictures again...want to eat this!

About two weeks ago I finally got around to trying Mariscos Chente, a complete dive in Culver City, but serving GREAT fresh Mexican seafood. Though these two below pictured shrimp dishes look the same, they're not.

One dish involved shrimp, butter and cracked pepper, while the other called for a nice dose of tequila for a bit of earthy flavor. Meanwhile, the ceviche incorporated shrimp, octopus, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, in a zippy lemon marinade which was quite delicious piled atop a crisp tortilla chips.

Best of all, this place is super cheap, each dish costs between $10 and $13, and for really fresh seafood that's a great deal. Can't wait to go back for more!

Mariscos Chente
4532 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 390-9241

Where to eat? Look for the C: What I learned about restaurant grades from living in L.A.

2010-08-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

My Op-Ed piece in Sunday's New York Daily News:

When I moved to Los Angeles four years ago, I had mixed feelings about a city that I believed offered sub-par restaurants. I was leaving the eater's heaven of my beloved Manhattan. How would I replace Eleven Madison Park, Frankies 17 or my beloved Prosperity Dumpling? I wasn't thrilled about bun-less In-N-Out burgers, strip-mall sushi and taco trucks.

What I came to discover should interest any gourmand now following New York City's widely disputed new effort to give all restaurants a grade for cleanliness from the health department.

I quickly learned that some of the best sushi in the country hails from those unassuming, hole-in-the-wall spots, that taco trucks serve top-notch Mexican and that In-N-Out is always good, lack of bun notwithstanding.

As I started to frequent more restaurants across town...

Read the rest here. >>

Bootlegger's Plum Riot Brewed with Rock Candy and Plums

2010-08-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

The first time I tried a Bootlegger's brew was at Lazy Ox Canteen earlier this year. As it turns out, one of the brewers actually worked behind the bar, and after chatting with him about what to order, he asked me if I wanted to taste a beer he had actually brewed. Game on. For the most part I LOVE sours and Belgian-style beers, so that's generally what I order. However, I tried Bootlegger's Palomino (pale ale) and totally fell in love. Sure, it was fun to chat with the brewer and sip his beer, but putting that aside, I simple dug the brew.

Fast forward to this past weekend in Ojai. There s an INCREDIBLE beer store/bar that sells over 700 beers -- Ojai Brewing Company. The co-owner of this store is also a part owner at Cap 'n' Cork in Silver Lake, another incredible comprehensive beer depot. Believe it or not, OBC is even better than Cap 'n' Cork, and because I am such a huge fan of craft beers, I ended up there twice on a 24 hour trip.

Yup. That's how I roll. Obviously we tried a slew of bomb beers, though one of my favorite hailed from Bootlegger's called Plum Riot which is brewed with rock candy and plums. It's on the lighter side with notes of plum... what a fun creation!

Check out my feature in the August issue of 944!

2010-08-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

Poutine at Soleil

2010-08-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

It may look un-glamorous, but it tastes oh. so. good. And this stuff is legit. Full on chevre cheese curds (OMG...LOVE) and 8 different preparations involving the likes of foie gras (oh yes), garlic parsley mussels, bolognese...
Animal serves a bomb poutine, but those boys don't use the real imported cheese curds. Soleil does. The fries are also skinny and crisp, perfect to scoop up excess sauce. Delish. AND the owner, Luc Alarie is looking for a space to open a poutine-centric restaurant: Poutine by Soleil.

Soleil
1386 Westwood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90024-4980
(310) 441-5384

Dine: Eva

2010-07-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night I had dinner, for the first time ever, at Mark Gold's Eva. Kind of a shocker that I had not eaten there yet, it had been on my to taste list since inception.

Mark Gold and fish- like whoa. Wait, I should start with the beginning. We first sampled a delicious, refreshing sweet corn soup with wonderful juicy (yes, juicy) figs and thin chewy rounds of smokey chorizo. The corn consume broth was cold, overall a great refreshing summer soup. And anyone that reads this blogs knows I LOVE sweet summer corn. Which would also explain why I ordered the sweet corn ravioli. At first I felt a bit jipped to only receive two ravioli for what - like $14 or something- but they were extremely rich and I probably couldn't have consumed more than two as an app.

So, here's where it gets interesting. I ordered steak which is strange because I generally don't order steak but I was craving red meat...anyway my friend ordered the halibut- and no joke, I think this was the best halibut I've ever tried. And I've quite obviously tried a lot. It must have been cooked sous vide and was in that not quite raw but not quite cooked place -- which happens when something is cooked at a low temperature for an extended period of time. But the bad part is that I don't have a picture! I generally only photograph food I eat, as in, whatever I personally order, and since this wasn't my dish I didn't shoot it. It was basically presented just like my steak, but sub in a delicate, translucent piece of halibut and that's what it looked like. The fish melted in your mouth, and was almost pudding texture - seriously. It wasn't about the flavors with the fish, rather how well the fish was cooked. Perfection.

Eva
7458 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 634-0700

Magnolia Bakery's Banana Pudding is INSANE...

2010-07-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

...and I am not really super into banana desserts or anything like that. Um, I really don't know how to why I am just finding this out- wtf? I've been to Mag in NYC a million times, always walked away with a pastel cupcake, and now the bomb: the banana pudding is actually the shining star here. OMG. Mid spoonful I had this weird sensation that I was eating a banana pudding version of tiramisu- thought I tasted mascarpone in there but probably not. And the Nilla wafers stand in for lady fingers...
This pudding, is it really even pudding? Not conventional pudding, at the least. It's like eating spoonfuls of thickened cream with pieces of banana and the Nilla wafers...die...

Dine: Farmhouse Inn, Sonoma CA

2010-07-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am SUPER obsessed with the Farmhouse Inn in Sonoma. I first discovered this adorable bed and breakfast almost two years ago while on a press trip. Imagine a five star hotel. Now image an east coast country bed and breakfast. Combine the two and you have the Farmhouse Inn.

First off, the Inn's restaurant has a michelin star and everything served there is sourced from like within 5 miles of the property, so it's beyond local. The food is rustic, extra seasonal, and very delicious.

Service is great and everyone there is soo nice. The rooms are amazing (I haven't stayed there but have seen the rooms) and guests are delivered fresh flowers and milk and cookies at bedtime. Behind the Inn lies a beautiful garden with fig trees, herbs, all sorts of good stuff. They also have a fantastic organic spa. When I visited the property two years ago they were in the middle of adding about 10 rooms to the property and then this time when I went back that renovation was complete. Now there are additional guest rooms along the back garden.

Anyway, so -- keep in mind this meal was like four hours after the Cyrus meal -- yeah, I'm a serious eater. Ha. I was still slightly full from that earlier meal so I wanted to go light. I ordered this great Belgian Gueuze (a sour, my fave) and opted for three apps as opposed to an app and a main.

We started with a tomato-strawberry gazpacho- YUM! Super refreshing especially after that hot Sonoma day.

For my first course I went with Wagyu Tartare with quali egg, truffle vinaigrette and brioche -- tasty. Actually, the best part of this dish were the grilled, barely charred extra sweet snap peas. They tasted as if they had just been picked.

I absolutely LOVE sweet corn, ugh, anything with sweet corn and I'm in. I didn't really feel like eating pasta but ended up going with the Corn Ravioli with shaved summer truffles. Ah, truffles, another one of my weaknesses. I am not sure much a fan of truffle oil because most are synthetic, not even real, but fresh truffles, yes please.

And my final app was a seared scallop with Peruvian potatoes, razor clams, tomatoes, and a small salad. About two months or so ago I ate at Lazy Ox and Josef sent me out a plate of razor clams -- soo yummy -- kinda chewy but in a good way.

And because I believe there is always room for dessert, there was room for dessert. This dessert, too, was AMAZING. Let's see how do I describe it? Well, on the menu it was described as a strawberry short cake, but it that was only partially true. So, imagine fried custard. Yeah. Like, real custard that is somehow formed into a disc and then fried - that was the "cake" part. So that you see, followed by tuile, super amazing fresh strawberries, then more tuile. On the side, buttermilk ice cream and a dash of buttermilk cream. I am getting hungry just writing about this...

Farmhouse Inn
7871 River Road
Forestville, CA 95436

Dine: Cyrus, Sonoma CA

2010-07-22T22:46:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I flew up north to Sonoma to meet one of my best friends from NYC run in the Sonoma half marathon. Naturally, eating adventures were planned in advance.

Samantha and I were joined by her family friend and we all decided to dine at Cyrus on Saturday for lunch. I've been wanting to try Cyrus for a while and was thrilled to be in Healdsburg (I am obsessed with this town) which is like the Hamptons minus the attitude.

Everything about the lunch was fantastic from the food to the service to...everything! Oh, also important to note, Cyrus has received a two Michelin star rating, just fyi.

We started with a trio of amuses: the clam, eggplant on the spoon, as I recall a strawberry basil gele, a version of a sumer roll, and finally the most insanely amazing, super umami shiitake mushroom broth- that was INCREDIBLE. Then we had a second larger amuse, kampachi with plum.

Oh, and we had the option to choose between a five and eight course tasting, we opted for the five course plus wine pairing- though Samantha just sipped my pairing.

Course 1: Thai Lobster

Course 2: Foie Gras Torchon with Cherry and Pistachio, Buttermilk Biscuit - the most delicious, moist, light biscuit I've ever tried!

Course 3: Turbon with Sweet Corn and Scallions, Lemon Verbena- loved the slightly crisped baby corn and that sweet corn puree was exactly what one would expect at this time of the year.

Course 4: Crispy Poussin with Potato Mousseline and Haricots Verts, Fine Herbs- good, but wasn't blown away. Also, I just ate at L'Atelier in NYC and Joel does THE BEST mashed potatoes in the world, literally.

Course 5: Red Velvet Cake- this was completely deconstructed-- bits of buttery baked cake dough and then the actual super moist red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting was on point, I just wished that there was more of the actual red velvet cake. The cake was colored with beets and there was a beet cream (so good, plus I love beets).

Finale: house-made candies. And then on Monday morning for breakfast I had a small Cyrus brownie which was rich and creamy, extra extra creamy. If you're headed to NorCal, this place is a MUST.

Cyrus
29 North St
Healdsburg, CA 95448
(707) 433-3311

Dine: M.Volt's The Langham, Revisited

2010-07-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last week I was invited to The Langham by two lovely editors from CHOW who had embarked on a cross country eating expedition. How fun. On their last night in LA they had chosen to dine at The Langham, and since I had not been over there in some time, I was curious to see and taste what Michael Voltaggio was up to.

I think every time I eat M.Volt's food it just gets better and better. Seriously. We started off with a pate de fruit lollipop and the most incredible caviar gougere- but instead of being filled with the expected gruyere, this delicate morsel was packed with caviar and creme fraiche was it?? It was insanely amazing. I could eat 100 of those easily.

For my first course I went with the halibut cheek with red curry jasmine rice and a coconut foam. I should also mention that we sampled some wonderful wine pairings compliments of Josh Goldman that definitely elevated the meal.

Anyway, it's the little unexpected touches that raise MV's food and here I was surprised (and delighted) to encounter CRISPY rice cloaked in that coconut foam, again, I could eat that rice for days. Really great texture, I would LOVE a bowl of just that rice.

Next up came kampachi with sea sponge, jambon Iberico, and sea beans. Another delish and beautifully presented course. Oh, wait, I need to stop for a second. I noticed something really interesting today. I think MV is taking inspiration from that uber molecular restaurant in Copenhagen, Noma. I came across this blog post that shows an insanely delish looking meal, and specifically focused in on the radish in a planter with dirt. MV served this exact same course to one of my other dinner guests, as I recall hers was radish in a coffee cardamom "dirt."

Anyway, moving right along, next came a light and airy black truffle brioche (had this last time I was at the restaurant as well) which is always a crowd pleaser.

I really enjoyed the pastrami pigeon as well as the suckling pig. So the little piggy was served with a side of banana polenta- let's discuss. The idea of banana polenta sounds a bit off-putting but this side was actually my favorite food of the night. First off, I think it was farina and not polenta, but whatever, it was AMAZING. Somehow the banana and pig just pair so perfectly together and the polenta or farina is smooth, creamy, with a subtle but present banana flavor.

I usually don't crave red meat but for whatever reason I gravitated to the beef cheeks with porcini. This was followed by, something I always love, home-made dip-n dots as a palate cleanser, a dessert I always am drawn to. I love eating hard ice cream (yeah so weird, right?) so I love dip n dots.

Anyway, I LOVED my dessert, the lavender flower macaroon with crème fraiche panna cotta, vanilla-passion sorbet, and floral cotton candy. While I LIKED the carrot cake, especially the presentation, it certainly was not my favorite dessert.

Bottom line, M.Volt is INSANELY talented and I can wait to hear more about his planned restaurant.

Hm, those "wrapped candies" look strikingly similar to these...

I Kinda Have A Lot Of Alcohol...

2010-07-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

...yeah. After WAY too long, I finally bought (or, well, got as a gift- thanks to the parentals) a wine cellar/fridge situation so now most of my reds are stored at a cool 55°F. However, my CuisinArt fridge only holds 32 bottles, that's the problem. I decided to store most of my reds in there, unfortunately not only do not all my reds fit in, that leaves another 50 something bottles of wine out in my always too hot apartment, in addition to a slew of shmancy Champagne.

I've even resorted to storing ANOTHER 20 or so bottles in my fridge which vie for space with my craft beer collection. AND that's not even counting the insane assortment of hard liquor I've amassed...basically my apartment could function as a liquor store.

Ironically enough, I am out so much that I don't end up drinking what I have, yikes! Regardless, I am totally psyched to at least have 32 bottles of wine stored at the appropriate temperature...I guess that's what happens when your dad starts giving you wine at age 10 to "develop a palate."

Weekend BBQ Photo Gallery

2010-07-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

I am finally back in LA, pretty sad about that because NY was awesome, despite the 104°F weather. I love NY in the summer, but that was a bit hot for my taste. Anyway, as I previously wrote, last weekend we had a big bbq for my brother Peter's graduation from Middlebury and as expected my dad and I did all the cooking. However big high five to Sam for serving as a fantastic sous chef, good work!

My contributions included the pesto parsley crostini topped with ricotta and sharp shaved provolone, the tomato peach chevre crostini, and for dessert the strawberry galettes and a peach raspberry crumble.

My dad who is an amazing cook served up japchae, filet mignon that he had marinated for several days in soy, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and such (it was DELISH), as well as those Vietnamese summer rolls, check out that whole operation!

Midtown Lunch Profile

2010-07-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Where do I like to lunch? Midtown Lunch profiled my top eats, check it out here.

Dine: Frankies Spuntino at Animal

2010-07-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

I love good Italian food. I've written about Frankies 17 on Clinton (NYC) before and I was absolutely thrilled to hear that Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli the masterminds behind Frankies 17 and Frankies 457 were coming to LA to host a pop-up restaurant to promote their new cookbook (which is FANTASTIC, might I add, haven't picked up a cb so great in a long time). So, I've been to Frankies 17 several times, never been to Frankies 457 (Brooklyn) and what I love so much about Frankies is, well, everything. The NYC restaurant itself is on the smaller side, super rustic Italian vibe, the entire restaurant (including the bathroom) is perfumed with the smell of roasted garlic. First of all, the food is VERY reasonably priced, I'm talking entree-sized pasta for like $14. Basically, super authentic delicious, rustic homestyle Italian. However, I don't meant chicken parm home-style, I'm talking about what their mothers made for them growing up, incredible, simple, delicious home-cooked Italian.

It's all about starting with a high quality base ingredient and not doing too much to it. Simply dressed salads with good olive oil, lemon, some Parm or Pecorino, salt and white pepper, done. Fresh pasta with white wine, clams, and crushed red pepper flakes, game on. You get the idea, yes?

So, the dinner at Animal called for dishes prepared from their new cookbook. We started off the meal with a fantastic antipasti plate with roasted mushrooms, cauliflower, delicious juicy green olives, salumi, pepper prosciutto, speck(?), and three cheeses. I think robiola, a sharp aged Provolone, and a blue situation. That plus some freshly baked ciabatta still warm from the oven-- so simple, so good.

Next came (and I've had this in NYC) perfectly ripe sweet summer tomatoes topped with avocado, pickled red onions, and crushed red pepper flakes. That also came out with a romaine Caesar..I mean it was good but nothing special.

Yum. Next came cavatelli in a brown butter spicy sausage bath with parsley...and on the subject of cavatelli I am in the market to by the Beebo cavatelli maker, though it has been discontinued and I can't seem to find it at the moment. So, if anyone knows where I can score one...please do advise. Anyway, this pasta dish was one of my favorites of the night.

We also tried the little pillows of gnocchi with a simple clean marinara topped with fresh ricotta and a sprinkling of Parm, totally good, yummy, tasty, but I preferred the cavatelli. But great pure tomato sauce.

The meat courses included a pork dish (which I forgot to photograph..umm...something about too much wine at this point) which I thought was a bit dry, and then great moist meatballs. I am not a huge meatball fan (well, I mean, they are fine but I don't seek meatballs out like some others I know) but these were wonderfully light, moist, my guess is that they were made with a fair amout of breadcrumbs to lighten them up. All served in the same pure tomato sauce. Nicely done.

Lastly, before Frank #1 invited us to the after party at his bungalow at the Chateau, came dessert. Both, incredible and both I plan to make on my own. I actually tried to make one of the desserts two nights ago but my dad screwed up and forgot to buy the ingredints, thanks dad!

Anyway, so prunes (yes, prunes) braised in red wine and a bit of sugar served over mascarpone..OMFG insane. The prunes became almost chewy from the sugar and red wine reduced and became syrupy...served over the silky, creamy mascarpone, wow what an amazing dish can't wait to recreate this one! And then, the lightest ricotta cheesecake ever. Subtle, hint of lemon, not at all heavy, amazing.

So, in conclusion, you should a) go out and buy the Frankies Spuntino cookbook and b) when you're in NYC hit up Frankies 17 or Frankies 457.

Hamptons Weekend

2010-07-04T22:16:00.000-07:00

Anything and everything that relates to my family involves food. Our day is planned around what's for dinner and usually, especially when my brother and I are in town, we tend to cook dinner together as a family, wine glass in hand, bottles abound. However, more recently, I do have to say, I have taken over more control of the kitchen. Anyway, growing up my dad did all the cooking, my mom made salads and was my dad's sous.

I was so excited to come out to my summer house for a few reasons. Obviously to see the fam which I never get to see since I live in LA, and also because East Hampton is my favorite place in the world, especially in the summer. Farmers market stands dot Route 27, there is just so much wonderful fruits, veggies, everything...it's hard to prepare a bad meal.

(local cherries and local blueberries)

This weekend we threw a big bbq for my brother Peter's college graduation. Now, when my parents throw a bbq, it's not like a real bbq as in burgers and hot dogs and beer. Oh no. My dad checked in with me about two weeks ago to start planning the menu, and my suggestions included Vietnamese summer rolls and Korean japchae, both of which ended up getting made. But anyway, the point here is that since we had two huge days of cooking, nobody felt like cooking on Friday night and dinner fell to me. Well, it kinda fell to me. My parents would have actually cooked but I felt like being creative in the kitchen.

So, the question was...what did we have at home that wasn't going to be used for the party that I could arrange into dinner. I lo-ove pasta, so I turned to...pasta. My mom brought in fresh mint from the garden, I toasted some walnuts (my original plan was to make a pistachio pesto but Citarella did NOT have pistachios, thanks Citarella) sauteed garlic in brown butter and voila. We tossed that plus crushed red pepper flakes and some locatelli and dinner was ready in a snap.

Dine: Providence

2010-07-04T20:44:00.001-07:00

So, this very unfortunate thing happened. B and I recently ate at Providence, and I put him in charge of photo-taking because he brought his super serious Nikon Rebel camera, and our pictures came out a disaster! We started taking pics with a flash, and after getting yelled at, er, politely asked to NOT take pictures with a flash, we flipped to flash-free photos...

It all seemed well and fine, in fact, all the photos looked even better in the view finder minus the flash, until I uploaded them and-- disaster!

They are ALL blurry and you can't appreciate the beautiful, meticulous detail that went into each and every plate. Sigh. The food at Providence is INCREDIBLE.

If you haven't eaten there it should definitely be on the top of your list. Start the night off with a refreshing market-inspired creation at the bar and then go for the tasting menu, which is exactly what we did.

The really sad part here is that I don't have a copy of our tasting menu and therefore can't tell you exactly what we ate. Sigh. That compounded with the lame photos...ugh, very unfortunate. Apologies on the photos, won't happen again. However, Providence is incredible, flavors, textures, everything all together. Definitely one of my favorite fine dining spots in LA.

Providence
5955 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 460-4170

What's The Cruelest Food You've Eaten?

2010-07-02T17:15:00.001-07:00

From Zocalo Public Square:

Our strong appetites for every fish from tuna and salmon to orange roughy and monkfish are upsetting ocean ecosystems and polluting the seas. Before Jonathan Gold visits Zócalo to explore whether our seafood habit is sustainable, we asked five food lovers – Kogi Chef Roy Choi, photographer Charlie Grosso, Teenage Glutster Javier Cabral, Eater LA’s Kat Odell, and Artbites’ Maite Gomez-Rejón – to tell us: What is the cruelest food you’ve ever eaten? Read their answers below.

The $1 Pizza from Bay Cities

2010-07-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend pre dinner party I hit up one of my favorite Italian deli and sandwich shop, Bay Cities. I was on the hunt for some fresh ricotta and while searching through the refrigerated cases I noticed frozen pizza crusts for a mere $1.19. Whoa, really? What a steal! Throwing together a pizza is actually like the easiest thing EVER and having a pre-pulled shell waiting for me to add toppings for a mere $1, done! Sold!

So the other night a friend and I were hungry circa 11PM and aha! Perfect time to pull out my frozen pizza crust. I added a drop of olive oil to the crust (top and bottom) some San Marzano tomato sauce, sharp Provolone, globs of fresh ricotta, and finally a julienne of basil. Popped that bad boy in the oven for 15 minutes, and voila!

A Frankies Spuntino-Inspired Dinner Party

2010-06-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

I am a HUGE fan of Frankies 17 in NYC, a wonderfully rustic cozy Italian restaurant on Clinton Street. About a month ago I heard that the owners, Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo, were coming to LA for a popup dinner (which I am attending) and just last week I was sent a copy of their new cookbook. It's WONDERFUL.

The recipes are so simple, call for few ingredients, I am absolutely addicted to this book. So, this evening I decided to host a small dinner party and try out a few recipes. I hit up Bay Cities for some fresh pasta (ugh, my pasta make is still with the EX boyfriend, MUST get that back) and their addictive bread, and picked up a few other ingredients at the market.

I decided to do a really simple antipasti dish with roasted veggies, their 3-hour marinara sauce, some crostini with fresh parsley pesto, ricotta, sharp provolone and good olive oil, and a shaved Brussels sprouts salad. Really really easy. Seriously, I was thrilled with how everything came out and my neighbor Rogelio who doesn't like parsley even dug the crostini. Score!!

To make Frankies' crostini here's what to do. Chop up garlic, and parsley and put that in a small bowl. Add good quality extra virgin olive oil and some salt and after yourmake your crostini (toasted bread of whatever you choose to use) then you add a layer of fresh ricotta, matchsticks of provolone, a drizzle of good extra virgin, and some fleur de sel. I swear by Maldon sea salt, love that stuff.

Sweet Rose Creamery's Fudge Bars

2010-06-27T12:11:00.001-07:00

Are out of this world. Everything at Sweet Rose Creamery is amazing and high five to Josh and Zoe Loeb for opening that place! But seriously, try one of their fudge bars, they are super rich and creamy, deliciously chocolate-y, amazing!

Chocolate Potato Chip Cookie...

2010-06-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

...from Grub. Really yummy. Betty Fraser (Top Chef alum) makes these bomb chocolate chip cookies with crushed up pieces of potato chips. I know it sounds totally weird but the cookies are so good!!

Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Parmesan, and Pignoli

2010-06-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

I was inspired my an article one of my contributors wrote for Good Bite about a salad made from zucchini ribbons, olive oil, Parmesan, lemon juice and toasted pignoli. Immediately the recipe appealed to me and was actually a riff off a pasta recipe I make quite frequently. The zucchini salad recipe called for several ingredients I always stock: Parmesan, pignoli, and olive oil (and almost always lemon), so I knew I needed to try it out. I was supposed to dine at The Glendon this evening but after eating out every night for the past two weeks (save for one night) I needed a break. I actually didn't have zucchini at home but did have a green squash so I just shredded it with a veggie peeler, added a bit of olive oil, fleur de sel, black pepper, a splash of fresh lemon juice, and finally a sprinkling of Parmesan. So simple and perfect for summer!

Dinner Chez Moi

2010-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

Last night I invited two friends over for a little dinner party. I stopped at the Santa Monica farmers market in the AM but I didn't get there until 12ish and was a bit underwhelmed with my options. I scooped up some squash, peaches, gaviotas, tomatoes, I really wanted to find some great favas or some other spring/summer veg but...no such luck. I figured I would make some type of peach white balsamic cocktail, and then as for the rest of the meal, I decided I would figure it out later.

Went over to Andrew's Cheese Shop on Montana, which is every kind of amazing, I love going in there and trying all his fantastic cheeses. I tend to like the really weird funky ones and I picked out three stellar cheese and some super crispy breadsticks.

Returned home and started thinking about what to cook. I was actually really tired and finally around 7 I realized I had invited friends over around 8ish so I needed to get started. I decided to roast the tomatoes with just a bit of olive oil, s, p, and then toss them with some white Italian beans I had, and then top all of that with this incredible white balsamic. That plus some sweet corn (got that at the market) cut off the cob and sauteed in brown butter with a touch of mint and parsley. Finally, I decided to sautee the zucchini with onions, garlic, white wine, and lemon, toss that with pasta and finish it all with either Pecorino or Parm. I loooooove Parm.

So that was that. Super simple recipes, I threw everything together in just over an hour. Then, I turned to cocktailing. Initially I was going to go peach, but I was still a) pretty hung over from the night before and wasn't quite ready to start drinking just yet and b) I had an over abundance of gaviotas (coastal variety of strawberries). Not that either of the two are related...

Anyway, so I ended up making a strawberry lemonade cocktail creation which was delish and very easy to make. Essentially you just muddle strawberries with lemon and agave, add in gin (or vodka) shake and serve on the rocks, or you could strain and serve up in a coup glass, I served on the rocks.

Spiked Strawberry Lemonade
4 small to medium strawberries
2 ounces fresh lemon juice
1 ounce agave or simple syrup
2 ounces gin (or vodka, and would prob be good with rum or cachaca)

Muddle strawberries, lemon, and simple syrup. Add gin, ice, and shake. Serve on the rocks.

Edible Art From Patina

2010-06-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

After Patina received a raving 4-star review in the LA Times recently I was extremely curious to sample the food. I had never eaten at Patina before and it was one of those restaurants that was on my radar, but for whatever reason I just never made it a priority to try. Anyway, that 4-star review drew my interest.

My friend Jean and I decided to go the whole nine yards, tasting menu, wine pairings, the full shebang. Initially she wasn't planning to drink since she was a bit hung over from the night before but how do you turn down 9 or so wine pairings at Patina? You don't.

We started off with the Marinated Hamachi (geoduck, cucumber vinegar, avocado, crostini, green apple mustard) and frankly the dish was so beautifully presented I didn't want to eat it! My favorite components of the dish were the extra crisp crostini that had been coated with brown butter, and the apple-y apple mustard, delish! The mustard really tasted exactly like what you would imagine an apple mustard to taste like and it was soo good.

We moved on to my favorite course of the entire meal: Seasonal Glazed Vegetable Mosaic ("jus de cuisson," lemon oil). Again, amazingly beautiful presentation and you could literally taste every single vegetable in that dish and each was cooked perfectly. The jus was a really rich vegetable stock, absolutely amazing.

Next came the Creamy Morels Risotto (asparagus, parmesan) and while I love morels and asparagus, true flavors of spring, I felt that the rice was a touch gummy and not cooked as well as the red wine risotto I recently ate at Valentino. Nonetheless, I still liked the simple flavors of the dish.

I just love lobster so was very excited to indulge in the Butter Poached Lobster (haricots vert, sugar snap peas, fava beans, english peas, "jus de la presse"), this was probably my second favorite dish. The lobster just melts in your mouth with all that unctuousness from the butter, plus a healthy dose of veggies to round out the dish.

Milk-Fed Veal Tenderloin (glazed carrots, turnips, cipollini onions) came next and at this point I started to get full. The veal, however, was incredibly soft (you know how veal can be rubbery and chewy sometimes?) and with a clean, almost milk-esque flavor. Really very good.

And we couldn't turn down the cheese cart. I love cheese, I love cheese carts, especially the cheese cart at Bistro LQ, that one is stellar! I wasn't overly impressed with the cheese selections, I felt like they were a bit on the safe side, I tend to like really weird, esoteric, funky cheeses and the three I tried (can't remember all but I know we had the Robuchon) were all a bit tame for me.

Desserts were all a stellar success. A deconstructed strawberry crumble called Strawberry Composition (arugula and tarragon granite, yogurt sorbet) with fresh strawberries, chunks of shortbread and that flavorful, fresh granite, all the flavors worked really well together.

And finally, Jean's favorite and the dessert that was also served at Taste of the Nation, the Crispy Chocolate Hazelnut (chocolate mousse, burnt sugar ice cream). What I love so much about this dessert, aside from that burnt sugar ice cream, is the super thin layer of crisp that exists at the very bottom of the chocolate mousse. It added the absolute perfect slight crunch to the dessert giving it a bit of added texture, SO GOOD!

All in all a fantastic meal. Patina isn't an every day restaurant, the food is too special. I would say it's a great place to celebrate a special occasion since it's definitely fine dining. Great service (everybody was SO nice) and just an all around wonderful dinner.

Patina
141 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012-3034
(213) 972-3331

Pinkberry's New Watermelon Froyo...

2010-06-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

...is actually kinda good...

Topped with cucumber, watermelon puree which freezes into the froyo, and watermelon chunks. Available in stores starting next week.

Bits and Pieces

2010-06-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

My brother Peter carrying his favorite Vermont Wolaver's (unfiltered) beer, it's so good!

Homemade dinner party.

Beautiful baby beets from Lazy Ox Canteen.

Napa Valley Grille's goat cheese cheesecake.

Homemade pomegranate grapefruit gin creation with crushed pink peppercorns. I added some of The Bruery's Orchard White for a bit of carbonation, delish!

This is what my parents like to send me in the mail from New York. No joke.

Homemade shortbread with maple sugar.

Local vermont cheese (some of which I brought back to LA!).

Adorable antique store in Brandon, VT, scored some old school locally made ice cream: mint and peppermint.

Very yummy sour beers: Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja, and Rodenbach Grand Cru.

Super shmancy Mother's Day brunch at Mozen inside the Mandarin in Vegas.

Valentino

2010-06-06T11:49:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to try Valentino for a while, and after the ancient eatery earned a three star review in the LA Times, I was psyched to have made a dinner reservation several weeks prior. First of all, this restaurant has been a success for, what, 40 years? And it's absolutely because of Piero Selvaggio, who is one of the most charming and gracious restauranteurs I've met. LOVE him! So, for this dinner we didn't order anything, I didn't even get to look at the menu, the chef just sent out lotsss of food. I love the simple Parmesan crisps we started with, and the bread basket (which i forgot to shoot) had some delicious crispy breadsticks and long flat crackers. Oh, I should mention that my camera still doesn't work and so that is why these photos are terrible. The camera will take pictures but I can't see what I am actually shooting, side note.

We started out with a trio of crudo: salmon, tuna and albacore paired with grapefruit, orange and pineapple- delish and super refreshing. I am not a huge salmon fan (except for Michael Voltaggio's wild salmon cooked sous vide!) but this salmon was surprisingly clean tasting and not uber fishy. We moved on to a tartare with Israeli couscous, an interesting way to serve the couscous, never had it like that before.

I loved the spaghetti with baby calamari, clams and prawns sprinkled with bottarga and the chocolate pappardelle, maine lobster ragú, cherry tomato was wonderfully flavorful too. The actual pasta didn't really taste so much like chocolate and the sauce was really deep and rich. I think my favorite dish of the night was the red wine risotto, the rice was perfectly cooked with a tart red wine flavor- YUM.

We had a few more courses which I forgot to shoot amid the gluttonous feast which also included so many great wine pairings. Needless to say, we were STUFFED and could barely finish the last two courses. Our waiter asked if we had room for desert and we said we could try something small, but when Piero saw we only had one dessert he freaked out and made the pastry chef send out an addition three or four creations.

Overall, I had a great dining experience at Valentino. The food was very good and reminded me of my November trip to Italy, and Piero just made the experience even more fun. He sat down and chatted with us for quite a while, telling us how Valentino came to be. My friend and I have decided we are going to come back to Valentino just to hang with Piero.

Valentino
3115 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405-2005
(310) 829-4313

Eating Vermont: American Flatbread / Full of Life Flatbread

2010-05-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

I was quite interested to read this morning that the LA Times published an article on the artisanal food movement taking shape in Vermont. Ironically, I was on the east coast last weekend for my brother's college graduation from Middlebury (Vermont), and I am well aware of the incredible local foodstuffs going on up there.

Because it's me and I am totally crazy when it comes to food, naturally I was planning eating adventures before my travels, however I soon found out that my evenings were pretty much booked with Peter's tennis team dinners/graduation events and such. Gr.

So, have you ever picked up a box of Full of Life Flatbread? It's the highest quality frozen pizza sold at Whole Foods and it actually originated in Vermont. And, when I was about 10 or 12 I ate at the original Vermont restaurant which existed wayyyy before those pizzas were ever sold in retail shops. Annndd, those pizzas were so good back in the day that I have remembered them until now, on top of the fact that I have continually purchased them at Whole Foods, and so on this trip back to Vermont I made sure to hit up the restaurant.

The Vermont original is called American Flatbread, and since opening that first super grassroots eatery so ever many years back, owner George Schenk has birthed multiple locations, one of which happens to be five minutes from Middlebury. So, my first night in Vermont, I dragged the fam to American Flatbread after dinner number one which was a tennis bbq.

Vermont is so cool and hippy, and this restaurant epitomized everything that is granola about the VT food scene. The eatery is housed in this huge open space, super casual, with local beers on offer and a slew of specials touting ingredients sourced from local farms. But, at American Flatbread, there is nothing pretentious about the way farm names are advertised in the way that some LA restaurant attempt to pimp these places out. There, it felt completely natural, as if it was obvious that the ingredients were sourced from local farms-- if that even makes any sense.

Oh, on a separate note, kinda big problem, I don't have a camera. My super awesome Nikon SLR had this malfunction so it's now being repaired and hopefully soon will be mailed back to me, and in the meantime, somehow last week the screen on my point and shoot got damaged...so it works as a camera to take pictures, but I can't actually see what I am shooting. So, all these shots were taken blindly, hoping they would come out.

Anyway, I took a shot of all the accolades American Flatbread has received, and as you can see, it's more than less.

I started out with a local brew, Switchback, a light ale, and after waiting 15 minutes or so, we were seated. The flatbreads are pretty big and actually one would have been enough for us, but we opted for two, adding different toppings to each half. We went with the daily specials of "traditional bolognese made with crawford farm's veal duchs thompson farm's beef and pork topped with singing cedars kale and crawford farm's vt ayr cheese/ golden russet's asparagus and green mountain blue cheese with clay oven roasted shallots and walnuts." Then we ordered the regular sausage pie and another tomato/mushroom version off the menu. All were a touch undercooked but in general quite delicious, too bad LA doesn't have a place like this. The crust was yeasty, light, and nicely crisp from the super intense oven you can see above. They can bake about four flatbreads in that oven at one time fyi. Of course I loved all the locally sourced-toppings, and just the whole hippy/casual atmosphere of the place made everything taste even better. I seriously felt transported back to the early dans of Chez Panisse-- (not that I was even born then, but still..) VT is like the modern day Berkley back in the day when Alice Waters opened her famed eatery..

So, the closest thing LA has to American Flatbread is the previously mentioned place, Full of Life Flatbread, located in Los Alamos, and I am very tempted to make a trip there. I don't think it's too far away and have a feeling that it will be just as great as those on the east coast.

Jeremy Fox's Veggie Dinners at Animal

2010-05-21T00:34:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Fox is a genius. The flavors he mixes...I just don't know..peas, white chocolate, and mint? I mean, really? Yes. and that pea consomme was one of my favorite dishs of the night. I mean, seriously, everything was incredible. And....file this under total unconfirmed rumormongering, but I think he's going to open a spot in LA.

I think he's testing it all out here first...maybe with the Animal guys, maybe not. When I queried our waiter on it, he gave me this highly suspicious smile and said something to the extent of, "yeah, we'll see." It would probably be something small, maybe in Venice...

Anyway, we will see what happens with that. So, we chose to do the first tier of wine pairings but the servers were so generous they poured us the more expensive wines, plus even some of the other lesser ones just because they loved them...so yes...was a bit drunk by the end of the evening.

We started out with these shockingly simple but so yummy marcona almonds with lavender salt/sugar, I totally want to make these at home.

Next came French breakfast radishes with black lava salt and chevre...simple, clean, yum.

Then came my favorite pea dish with the white chocolate, mint, and a pea consomme that was poured tabelside. Beets baked in rose geranium salt arrived next...

Young favas roasted whole then shucked and served with parmesan...

Heirloom carrots with vadouvan (I actually just orederd a bottle of this French Curry spice, can't wait to try it out!), coconut and parsnip...

My second fave was the celtuce stalks...ahh I am getting so tired on my flight I think it's nap time for me. I do however want to mention one of the desserts which totally blended weet and savory. I personally loved it- it was the chcocolate ganache with shiitake mushrooms- the flavors surprisingly really work together...I dug it.

The Tasting Kitchen, Venice

2010-05-20T23:58:00.001-07:00

And then, as if I hadn't eaten enough that day, I went to The Tasting Kitchen for dinner. No joke. I've had some really great meals at this restaurant and not only that, they offer a fantastic alcohol program. By that I mean the esoteric wines they offer are always interesting and delicious, and I like how they bring the bottle to the table and pour it there.

Also, all their cocktails, which is a newer addition, are fantastic. As I recall they make all their bitters, tonic, all that good stuff in house- and when I ate there about a month ago I challenged the bartender (this is something I love to do) to create a version of a Penicillin with gin, fresh ginger juice, honey, lemon...and I think that was it. Anyway, he totally nailed the drink and my accomplice was smitten by the cocktail as well so we drank those all night long. Good times.

On this given evening we started out with oysters (one of each listed on the menu), and cheese plate which was just okay, not great, this wonderfully fresh beet salad with salsa rustica (like a pesto) and fennel. You know how when you get fresh beets at the farmers market and they are SOOO candy sweet at their peak of ripeness, yeah well these tasted just like that. Just like beet candy. BTW, I've totally had beet candy before and it's great. Back like 3 or, ah, 4 years ago when I was living in NYC I went to the opening party for Gilt inside the NY Palace Hotel and the chef (who has gone on to do big things but I can't think of his name right now) served beet fruit roll ups, they were insane.

Anyway, back to this meal. So, when I ate at TTK like a month ago we had ordered this incredible pasta dish with milk-braised pork, but that wasn't on the menu today so I chose tagliarini with clams and breadcrumbs, and bucatini alla amatriciana. I actually ended up preferring the tagliarini (I am still on that clam kick from like 8 months ago) because I love dishes with those coarse bread crumbs that are sauteed in olive oil or butter and become super crunchy- this dish was great with a very very very light cream sauce, the clams, and the crunch from the bread crumbs.

In general I love amatraciana and this version was totally fine and good but not the best I have come across. The sauce wasn't deeply tomatoey rich as I've had in the past, actually Osteria Mama does a good rendition of rustic amatriciana. Even La Buca's version is better. Anyway kids if you haven't been here, now is the time to go.

The Tasting Kitchen
1633 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 392-6644

PA-ORD + Raw Cane Juice

2010-05-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

I am actually at a loss for words after eating at this Thai restaurant on Sunset. It was one of the best meals I've had lately, and we all know that I eat out just about every night. So, if you want REAL Thai food, this is your spot. I PROMISE you will love love love this place. Not only is the food incredible, but if you go back into the kitchen, it is the most meticulously clean kitchen I've ever seen in my life.

Especially for a strip mall Thai restaurant. I can't wait to go back here. If I was not probably mid-way over Kansas right now I would be eating here. First off, you must get the boat noodles. Your waitress will specify how hot you want this...even if you get it mild, it's still going to be hot so advise cautiously. I made the mistake of ordering the boat noodles medium...yikes...major hotness. But, I ate them anyway.

Oh, another great thing about this place is it's dirt cheap. You can easily pop in for lunch (or dinner for that matter) and spend like $6 on a filling bowl of soup.

Anyway, so you're already ordering the boat noodles which come in the richest, most deeply flavorful broth...EVER. We also ordered the pad se ew and (this was not my choice) the requisite pad thai (zzzz). However, I do have to saw, the pad thai was great with thin rice noodles, a bit of chicken, peanuts, bean sprouts, you know the deal. Ask for extra lime because that zinginess really brings the dish together.

Now, here's the thing. Pa-Ord has been written about across the blogosphere, but why has nobody ever written about the amazing sugar cane juice place directly next door called Raw Cane Juice? Helllooo? It's awesome. It does look a little sketch but the sugar cane juices are super refreshing.

I tried the mix of coconut water and fresh sugar cane, and then the ginger plus sugar cane...they are just so clean and pure tasting, gotta go there as well. However, the one down point is that a small bottle was $6, a bit steep if you ask me. Anyway, those juices were so great I would still go back for them.

Pa-Ord
5301 Sunset Blvd. #8
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 461-3945

Raw Cane Juice
5301 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 537-6611

Exotic Ice Creams at Saffron and Rose Ice Cream

2010-05-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

If you've ever visited Mashti Malone's and dug their frozen cream, you will love Saffron and Rose Ice Cream. It's a bit unclear if this place is called Rose Market or the afore mentioned but...anyway...

This place is about across the street from Flame and serves up a slew of extra rich and creamy ice creams in addition to some frozen Persian specialties. I basically tried every flavor there and loved just about all of them. The cucumber is really interesting, rose and saffron and orange blossom were all delicious- I mean, coming here you really can't go wrong. Fun flavors included guava, date, white rose, fresh ginger, orange/tangerine...and I also bought this really fun fruit leather stuff, pomegranate and cherry. It's basically just like an all natural fruit roll up- I love any type of all natural fruit roll up situation.

So, because I tend to like weird things, I went with this poppy seed slushy stuff, well, I was told it was poppy seed but I think those were actually chia seeds in there. Anyway, that plus the rose ice cream...mmmmmm....

I also took home a pint of saffron and a pint of orange blossom, so if you want to try them, just come over!

Saffron and Rose Ice Cream
1387 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 477-5533

Flame Persian Cuisine on Westwood Blvd

2010-05-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

I am currently on a plane en route to NYC and decided it's high time I catch up on my eating adventures. Yikes, where to begin. I guess I'll start with some delicious discoveries from last weekend. About a year ago the NY Times published an article on all the great Persian restaurants that populate Westwood Blvd and I've been meaning to eat my way through that list. I couldn't really hit up 10 spots in one day (well, I guess I could...) so I decided to start off with Flame.

I had continually heard good things about this spot, and from what I do know, I think it's considered one of the more high end eateries.

First off, the second you walk in, you are instantly inundated with the aroma of freshly baked bread, it's amazing! I will go back to Flame just for that incredible flat bread which is baked right in the dining room in this beehive-shaped tandoori oven. Think piping hot, thin, yeasty bread that is so addictive, we quickly went through two baskets before we realized none of our food arrived. Oops.

I frankly could have eaten more but I knew I had a fair amount of eating to do, so I held off.
We started with a dish of pickled veggies: okra, peppers, cauliflower, a full assortment in a sharp herbal vinaigrette. I think I definitely crunched down on some coriander seeds in there.

We also ordered (per the waiter rec) the grilled filet which was served with rice, a blistery roasted tomato, and some blackened roasted veggies, onions and squash. I don't know what specifically they did to that steak but it was delish. I normally ONLY like my meat rare to medium rare, in this case it was about medium-well, but still juicy and super flavorful. Well done.

Flame
1442 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 470-3399

Crack Chicken at Dino's Burgers

2010-05-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

Soggy fries never tasted so good at Dino's on Pico. Ironically, this place is called Dino's Burgers, but here, it's all about the roast chicken. I can't remember who first told me about this hole in the wall, but I have forever been meaning to try it out.

Patrons line up outside, order from a window, then hope to score a seat inside the small indoor dining room or at one of the few outside tables. Yesterday when I ventured over, circa 2pm, there were about 10 people in line ahead of me, but those guys in the kitchen are pumping the food out, so the wait was really not so long. At Dino's it's ALL about the chicken. While there is a menu posted inside the dining room, nobody actually orders off that thing (it boasts burgers and such). "Pollo" says the guy behind the window as he points to me, "cuantos?" I don't even order, just take direction from him and ask for two. Two half chickens served atop soggy fries with three warm corn tortillas rolled up-- all bathed in a garlicky-vinegary sauce (with a touch of heat) which is what Dino's is famous for.

I sit down, take a look at the chicken, pick up the fork, and wonder how I am supposed to eat this. No knife? I think everybody there eats with their hands, I was probably the only person that had ever requested a knife. Anyway, I ate the whole thing with a fork and knife. Whatever, I didn't want to get my hands dirty. Seriously, this chicken, as messy as it looks, is AMAZING. And the best part is all that saucy goodness that collects at the bottom of the styrofoam container is then absorbed by the fries, seriously, delicious. I should also mention, this place is dirt cheap. I think my whole above pictured meal was just $5 or $6. You know how Momofuku Milk Bar sells Crack Pie? Well, Dino's sells crack chicken. Craving this right now...

Dino's Burgers
2575 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90006-4011
(213) 380-3554‎

Sprinkles Caramel Cupcakes...

2010-05-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

...are serious. I am not always a huge Sprinkles fan because sometimes I think the icing is too sweet and there is simply too much of it...personally I LOVE Violet in Pasadena...but Sprinkles just came out with a caramel cupcakes which is SO GOOD. Somehow when I received a box of the treats the were super fresh and almost still warm- I happen to love caramel so for me these were awesome. The cake part was moist and the icing not too sweet....loved.

Scenes from Bon Appetit's Vegas Uncork'd

2010-05-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Phew, I just got back from an absolutely exhausting weekend in Vegas. Three 6am nights do take a toll. Let's see...highlights, the kick off party was pretty amazing, insane culinary talent, Alain Ducasse sabered a bottle of Champagne, I met up with my bff Joel Robuchon- actually lots of JR stories.

We went out with him Thu night to Studio 54, then ended up with him at XS on Fri night, however my friend Jane and I ended up venturing over to the club owners' table and stayed there for the rest of the night...smileyface

...anyway, when we saw Joel the next day he was srsly mad we had left! He said he and his translators had been looking for us...anyway also attended a grand fendi fashion gala...hurbert keller djing was pretty great...ohh at the grand tasting JR started introducing himself as Alain Ducasse which was pretty great...ah, vegas...

Check out my iPhone App!

2010-05-03T16:37:00.000-07:00

Ok so it's not reallllly my iPhone app, but my restaurant recommendations are featured there. Check out The Actor Genie, a one stop shop for all the movies that are casting and make sure to my top pics for restaurants in LA and NY where one might spot a celeb.

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Ramen at Kohryu, Costa Mesa

2010-05-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took a trip down to Costa Mesa, and after a few hours of shopping at the South Coast Plaza, I was totally ready to eat. I was tempted to drive back up to LA to sample The Six, a new west la resto I have been hearing good things about, but since I am infrequently in OC/Costa Mesa, there was a ramen place I wanted to try out...so I decided to opt for two dinners. I also happened to be craving Lazy Ox, so the plan turned into Kohryu for ramen, followed by dinner two at Lazy Ox. Luckily, Kohryu, a tiny hole in the wall spot, is located just a few minutes from the South Coast Plaza. It was around 5pm when we showed up, there were a few tables occupied, and my guest and I were the only non-Asians in the place, just how I like it!

Yes, we went with a bowl of ramen, but pan-fried dumplings caught my eye so I had to order those, and we also opted for some kimchi, not sure why because we were in a Japanese restaurant not Korean, but I was craving something sour and tangy so...

All the food came very quickly, very quickly. I would say our entire meal spanned about 25 minutes MAX. The dumplings were better than expected with a very thin skin, juicy pork interior and crisp, crunchy outside.

The ramen was definitely yummy though didn't change my life by any means, and I was glad that I didn't find myself downing glasses of water, so maybe that means they use less msg than Santouka? Noodles were good, not amazing and didn't taste homemade, the broth was earthy- we had, or rather, I had ordered the waitress' recommended Miso ramen and though I had not wanted mine with chili oil, I think there was quite a bit in there anyway. Oh well. I didn't want to eat too much at dinner number one, so we left not completely full and headed to Lazy Ox!

Kohryu
891 Baker St
#B-21
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 556-9212

My Super Simple Summer Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

2010-04-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

Holy cats, another video!

Kat's Simple Crumble from Claire Thomas on Vimeo.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble
3 cups fresh or frozen fruit (2 cups strawberries, 1 cup rhubarb)
2 tabelspoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
1 box Walker shortbread cookies, crumbled (5.2 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Add fruit to baking pan, followed by brown sugar, butter, and crumbled short bread cookies. Bake until fruit is bubbling, about 25 minutes.

High five to Claire of The Kitchy Kitchen for taking these RAD photos!!

Olive, the team mascot. Yes, my dog is named after food.

15-Minute Healthy Chicken Parm with Roasted Broccoli

2010-04-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

Check out my first video for Good Bite!

Fresh Homemade Ricotta

2010-04-20T22:06:00.001-07:00

I absolutely love fresh ricotta. The clean, creamy, light cheese is delicious on its own, sprinkled with a bit of good olive oil and sea salt, with honey drizzled on top, it's really a blank slate that can be used in tons of ways. My favorite pancake recipe calls for beaten egg whites and ricotta, the egg whites render the pancakes light as air while the ricotta makes the batter exceptionally moist and rich. When I make homemade lasagna, I actually don't add ricotta, I use a bechamel sauce instead, though I do enjoy a good ricotta tart, and the honey ricotta pound cake at Abraco in New York City is perhaps the richest, moistest, yet lightest pound cake I've ever sampled. Simply put, amazing.

Read my ricotta recipe at GoodBite.com

Coachella Dining: Native Foods

2010-04-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I've been really bad about writing, but I promise that is going to change. It's obviously not that I haven't been eating, rather just insanely busy, haven't had time to write about it all...which also means that I have soo much to write about. But, being that Coachella was this past weekend, I feel compelled to write about my desert eats. Basically, I ate at the same cafe every single day for four days. No joke. It was THAT good.

A while back I heard about a place called Native Foods and so when faced with the pangs of hunger on Friday afternoon, I remembered the resto. Actually, that's not exactly how it happened. I had discovered this wonderful health food shop when I was in Palm Springs a few months ago, but couldn't remember the name. I tried googling "health food store palm springs" and Native Foods came up which prompted me to remember a friend talking about how great Native was- so, Nish and I gave it a shot. As it turns out we were staying literally 3 minutes from the PS eatery (there are 6 locations in all) and we eagerly grabbed a menu.

So, the service wasn't great but the food was phenmonal...even before I realized it was a vegan restaurant. The first two visits I though it was vegetarian, then on visit three I realized it was vegan, and I am definitely not at all vegan, I love me some butterrr. Anyway, as a non-vegan and definitely meat consumer, I can tell you STILL that this place is AMAZING. Standouts inclde the veggie burger (house-made patty), Greek Gyro which is this bowl with sour lemony quinoa, veggies, kale, tempeh (that seriously could be legit meat) and this SUPER yummy garlic hummus-- ahh I am craving this right now. Also, the nachos are legit, as are the "chicken wings" omg how is that not chicken?!

And of course, I was elated to learn that there's a Westwood outpost. I am SO there. I also chatted with a manager who said the resto has plans to open three new la outposts, SWEET!!!!

To continue on the subject of Coachella dining, while at the actual festival I ate at that raw spot, forgot what it was called but it had the fresh coconuts and this really yummy kelp pasta- which I had never tried before but now I'm addicted (literally bought some and made it tonight for din with some fermented soy beans). OMG and what's up with the vanilla Luscious Cupcakes? The vanilla ones were super addictive, ahhh. Other than that stand, I had a craving for a spring roll from the Thai vendor next door, but of course, it was pretty inedible and SOAKED in oil...had to throw most of that away, ew. On the way back to LA yesterday I stopped by my fave 1+1 Dumpling House for another INSANE meal.

Bits and Pieces

2010-04-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

[Foie gras with vanilla bean-fig emulsion, Da Vinci)

[Assorted sashimi, Tiger Sushi]

[Assorted sashimi, Tiger Sushi]

[Coconut pineapple sake cocktail, Tiger Sushi]

[Arancini, Minestraio]

[Burrata pie, Pitfire Pizza]

[While Corn Agnolotti, Giorgio Baldi]

[Clams with white wine, Giorgio Baldi]

[Beef carpaccio, Giorgio Baldi]

The 1 Hour Dinner Party

2010-03-25T19:32:00.001-07:00

Well, it wasn't so much of a dinner party, rather my parents plus my neighbor, though my brother Peter was supposed to come with friends but they couldn't make it. I sent my parents to the farmers market to score the goods, then we agreed to all cook together later. That most definitely did not happen and when I got home around 7PM after attending a Plymouth and Beefeater gin event, I still had to work before I could even think about my menu.

This is not how I usually host a soiree. Anyway, my parents got stuck in traffic and didn't end up arriving at my apartment until 9PM, the same time which I had invited my neighbor over...so I ended up cooking the whole meal myself in an hour, yikes. On offer, chanterelles sauteed in brown butter with parsley, roasted baby beets with tomato vinegar, generic salad with chevre, this weird heirloom carrot dish that didn't quite work, and fingerling potatoes tossed with Parm, white wine vinegar, some garlic and evoo.

I wanted to make dessert too but simply didn't have time. For me the highlight of the meal were the delicate chanterelles sauteed in enough brown butter flecked with crisp fresh parsley, bomb.

To make this dish simply sautee a bit of shallot in brown butter, add in the mushies sautee about 13 minutes until cooked through, then add salt to taste. Turn off heat and stir in chopped parsley, so simple so good.

Dine: 1+1 Dumpling House

2010-03-21T00:45:00.000-07:00

I'm lying in bed and thinking and thinking and thinking about lunch, or was it dinner? earlier today. My parents are visiting from NY, my brother Peter is here for a tennis tourny, which means it's very much time to hit up SGV for dumpling action. For the past few months they've been living vicariously though this blog, and now an opportunity to try the goods first hand.

As it turns out, Peter's match today was in West Covina (score!) and yesterday Sinosoul had recommended a new dumpling spot for me to check out which was a mere 12 minutes away, per gps, from the match.

(Peter pre-meal, very excited to eat)

1+1 Dumpling House is the name, and eating dumplings is the game. I am going to venture out to say...out of all the pan fried pork dumplings I have ever ever tried in my life...which for me is a lot since I am obsessed with dumplings...these today...were...ahhh...the best I have ever tried. There I said it. Yikes, but seriously, beyond amazingly good. The skin wasn't too thick, was actually on the thinner side but not too thin. Appropriately slippery on top and perfectly crisp on the bottom. When you bit into one of these bad boys, they were, in fact, juicier than the pork soup dumplings we ordered, which were also very delicious and appropriately soupy.

The pan friend pork dumplings are insane. And the restaurant claims to not use any msg in their food so super high five from me on that.
So, we entered the restaurant circa 4pm and after only having had an Intelligentsia cappuccino and croissant at 10am, we were ready to eat. I took control of the ordering, probably ordered too much food (because that's how I roll), but an hour later it was all gone. Steamed chicken with cilantro, scallions, cucumber in this wonderfully garlicky sauce, sliced beef in a chili, garlicky sauce, steamed garlicky (yes, I do enjoy garlic) spinach, red bean bao, steamed juicy pork dumplings, steamed pork and celery dumplings (yes, celery), pork pan fried dumplings, beef noodle soup. OMG i need to stop.

So, I love JTYH for noodles...the home made noodles in this beef noodle soup gives JTYH a run for its money. In all fairness these are not knife-cut noodles, these are thick, chewy, slightly slippery noodles that you can't stop eating and taste sooooooooooo fresh and home made. Ahhhhh.

(the holy grail of dumplings)

So, toward the end of the meal we started talking to the owners of the restaurant and we learned that 1+1 was actually deemed one of the 100 best restaurants (not sure if the designation was for Chinese restaurants or dumpling restaurants...) in the country. By whom was this honor bestowed? Absolutely no idea, though they did have a shiny trophy which was proudly brought over to our table for show and tell.

I love Dean Sin World and JTYH (for noodles) but this is my new favorite dumpling spot. At 10pm Peter sent me a text saying "I'm still full." That's the sign of a good meal. Oh yes, and I bought a bag of 30 pork and Napa cabbage dumplings to take home. Of course I did.

1+1 Dumpling House
Hong Kong Plaza
1017 S Glendora Ave
West Covina
626-338-6868

The Ceviche Food Marathon

2010-03-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

Before I even get into writing about the super yummy ceviche marathon I went on recently, I MUST vent about last night. So, I went to Trousdale last night and this HORRIBLE guy starts talking to me and has the audacity to ARGUE with me about meat. I'm not joking. I can't exactly remember what we were talking about...somehow we started talking about food (shocker) and I might have been complaining about...oh yes, about a bad meal I had at Bouchon in Napa. I think I was complaining about how I had ordered a steak medium rare and it arrived medium well...and this awful guy says something like " well, that's your opinion" about the fact that the meat was overcooked. I was like...I ordered my meat medium rare and meat needs to be cooked to certain temperature to reach different levels of doneness...I didn't make these rules...and bottom line the steak was overcooked..and he kept saying "that's your opinion" and I was like..NO it was over cooked..if they had stuck a thermometer in that thing it would have not been medium rare...ughhhhhh I seriously couldn't stand talking to him..I walked away mid sentence..UGH!

Anyway, on to more important things like ceviche. So, two weekends ago I went on a ceviche food marathon with Food Marathon and Teenage Glutster. We started out at Mo-Chica and I was so starving when we got to Mercado La Paloma that Teenage Gluster suggested I try this warm drink made from ground corn and coconut- it was INCREDIBLE. It was thickish but still a drink, slightly sweet, silky smooth and perfectly comforting with all the rain that day. I've been craving it for the past two weeks, ek!

So, first stop, Mo-Chica. I mean, it was gooood, I've had much fresher fish though... I am just not a super huge Mo-Chica fan the way many others are. I mean it's fine and all...but I am not a huge fan of those goopy sauces, I much prefer lighter ceviches.

Next up, La Cevicheria. Total hole in the wall, didn't care for the mixed fish ceviche WAYYY too fishy for me but the blood clams were awesome. Chewy, super sour and lemony, really perfect with the crisp tortilla chips served alongside.

We hit up Los Balcones for a different ceviche preparation which came alongside great crisp fried calamari, sweet potato, and tons of red onion. I loved dipping the oily calamari into the sour ceviche juice... and frankly I'm not a huge fried calamari consumer but here it worked.

The last leg of the journey was Natalie Peruvian. I wasn't a huge fan of this ceviche which was similar to the one prepared at Los Balcones. That yellow sauce on top scared me- I don't like mayo and this reminded me a lot of mayo so I tasted it but didn't eat much.

All in all I highly recommend La Cevicheria for the blood clams, I can't wait to go back. That and the bomb coconut drink.

Preamble to Ceviche Marathon

2010-03-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

Before I even most my recount of the recent ceviche marathon, I simply had to share this wonderful photo, big ups to Food Marathon for creating!

Mole in East LA

2010-03-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went on a totally rad ceviche marathon with Food Marathon, Teenage Glutster, and one other devout foodie.

But that, in fact, is not what this post is about. Though, I will soon disclose where to find the best blood clam ceviche in LA. Anyway, last Saturday FM and I drove to East LA to scoop up The Glutster, and it just so happened that The Glutster's neighbor was having a party for baby jesus. This is not a joke. Apparently, when one celebrates baby jesus, this requires the Mexican women of the household to craft several vats of 12-hour mole...and we were lucky enough to get invited to baby jesus' party and experience this 12-hour mole in addition to handmade black bean tamales.

Literally, this was a scene our of Saveur. We're in this rundown section of East LA and in these huge metal pots several Mexican women are making mole in their garage- SO AWESOME.

The mole wasn't ready when we first arrived, luckily we have several hour of ceviche eating to undertake, so by the time our day was done around 5PM, the mole was very much ready and very much delicious. Not sweet the overpowering the way Oaxacan moles can sometimes be, rather a complex super smooth subtle blend of spices, fruit, nuts to create a smokey multi-level mole that one could only find...in a garage...in East LA.

Dine: 16 Courses at Joel Robuchon

2010-03-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

So, here is a post I wrote for Good Bite about my dining adventure following the whole Joel Robuchon debacle. Obviously, the dinner was great with especially high marks for the bread cart and the dessert cart!!

From Good Bite:

So, you may have caught my Q&A plus trip to In-N-Out Burger with Joel Robuchon that went up and buzzed through the internet about a week and a half ago, now comes part deux of the story. The cliff notes version of the story is that I flew to Vegas to intrerview the world famous super duper Chef Joel Robuchon who ended up inviting me to go with him on his first ever In-N-Out experience. Anyway, after that whole debacle, 7PM that evening my friend Rebecca and I found ourselves seated inside Joel's shmancy purple-bedecked namesake eatery inside the MGM Grand. Not only that but Joel reserved his best table in the house for us, Celine Dion's plush purple velvet booth. Sweet. Anyway we opt for, per the GM's recommendation, the 16-course tasting menu, a serious dinner.

The whole restaurant is on the small side and can best be described as purple plush, seriously purple everywhere and I just happened to be wearing a purple top and purple nail polish, so I camouflaged into the surroundings.

Earlier that day I had told Joel that since I was little my father had told me, "you can always judge the quality of a restaurant by its bread and butter (or olive oil)," and Joel said, "tonight you will see bread and butter like you've never seen before." And we did. First came the insanely beautiful bread cart with...I don't even know...30 different types of bread? Of course there was a crisp traditional baguette, sweet flakey brioche, a delicious creamy (yes, creamy) bread called milk bread, saffron, basil bread...endless types of bread. I started with baguette and saffron bread, wanting to try something both new and old. Next the manager brought out a BLOCK of butter from Brittany and proceeded to shave off spirals of butter with a spoon which was plated, then dusted with fleur de sel (sea salt).

No shocker, the bread and butter were incredible. An utterly prefect rendition of chewy, crusty baguette and softly scented subtle saffron bread. The butter was incredibly rich with the slight taste of cheese- the way a good butter should taste.

Our first dish was Le Caviar: caviar on a fennel cream served in a small metal caviar jar. Cute.

Next came out La Truffe Noir, shaved black truffles served over tiny potatoes, a bit of arugula, and foie gras carpaccio. I had never tried foie gras carpaccio, which is really like shaved carpaccio, if that's even possible, but the dish was delicious, if rich. I didn't really understand the need for the potatoes, perhaps just to hold the dish together otherwise it would essentially be just foie and black truffles, which, frankly, doesn't sound so bad to me.

On we go. More fun from the world of black truffles because up next came a treat. A trio of black truffle preparations, La Symphonie de Truffe: an insanely thin tart made from mille feuille, probably only like three layers though because it was that thin and delicate. Also on the plate with a mushroom broth with slices of black truffle and veal "ravioli," though the ravioli was actually made from a mushroom, and lastly that pretty little thing with the gold leaf was basically like a chicken custard, also incredible.

Next up came La Saint-Jacques, a large seared scallop served in the lime green broth made from coconut milk, cilantro, and some spices with a light as air bread crisp on top. So thin, it melted in your mouth.

I love uni, and next up came some uni! Another trio of bedazzling dishes called Les Crustaces. A creamy uni or sea urchin flan with mocha foam (the uni and the mocha totally worked togehter!), king crab turned almost into a sushi roll-esque presentation with an orange vinaigrette and finally my favorite of the three actually, the peppermint-flavored langoustines with this incredible crunchy outside, almost like fried rice vermicelli noodles, amazing texture!

Last time I ate frogs legs, I wasn't exactly a happy camper, but I much preferred Joel's La Grenouille, a frog leg fritter with garlic parsley puree. This frog leg was clean without really any fishy taste, moist on the inside and crisp/fried on the outside.

At this point in the meal we were more than halfway done, but definitely starting to get full. One of my favorite dishes of the night came next, La Chataigne, which literally means chestnut. However, there are two types of edible French chestnuts, le marron and la chataigne, a sweeter more prized version. Anyway, this was a light chestnut cream with a smoked lardon (bacon) foam and speckles of lardons. Again, another great flavor combination.

Read the rest on Good Bite.

Cook: Quick Tomato Mushroom Pasta Sauce

2010-02-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

Since I eat out so frequently, I've sort of forgotten to go grocery shopping thus I haven't had much food in my apartment lately. Last week I got really hungry one night I didn't have a dinner scheduled, and decided to cook for myself. Since I was just cooking for one I didn't want to make anything too complicated.

I checked around my kitchen and procured the following ingredients: pasta I had brought back from Italy, San Marzano tomatoes I had brought back from Italy, onion, Parmesan, fresh parsely, mushrooms...so that became by dinner. First I sauteed 1/4 large Vidalia onion in some olive oil and then tossed in a few sliced baby bella mushies.

Next I added a bit of white wine, reduced that for a few minutes then added my shmancy tomatoes. Reduced all of that, plated the pasta, added the sauce plush fresh chopped parsley, and then topped with Parmesan. Voila, dinner in 20 minutes!

The Great Kombucha Experiment

2010-02-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

I'm totally obsessed with kombucha. Since I don't drink soda, I usually just drink water at restaurants, water during the day, water when I go out for lunch...and then a year or so ago I discovered kombucha, the esoteric miracle cure! I acutally tried kombucha probably about 3ish years ago and wasn't taken with it. I thought it tasted alright...and then about six months ago I was in Palm Desert and stumbled upon this insane awesome natural food shop where they sold this $20 bottle of kombucha (750ml) and yes I bought/tried it and it was amazing. I wrote an article for Good Bite on Sea Chi, the company that makes this insanely yummy kombucha, and the owner Sanandra was kind enough to send me a sample "starter" so I could brew my own! Game on! This isn't the frst time I've attempted a bizarre do-it-yourself activity. Some may recall the shiitake mushrooms I grew and blogged about for Bon Appetit and two years ago, so it's no shocker that I would want to brew my own kombucha. Here' how it went.

From Good Bite:

...Just to recap, kombucha is a fermented tea made from a starter culture with just sugar, tea, and water, much in the way yogurt is made from a starter plus milk. Kombucha is praised for its esoteric powers to cure people of various illnesses and is referred to by some as a miracle drink. Anyway, I love the tart, carbonated beverage and decided to go whole hog and brew my very own batch. I followed my previously printed directions: I boiled bottled water with organic cane sugar and once the sugar had melted I dropped in 10 organic green tea bags (kombucha can be made with green or black tea bags). I didn't have a glass bowl so I poured the mixture into a plastic mixing bowl and then dumped in the thick Jell-O esque starter I had been given by Sea Chi. Voila, all done! The directions called for an X-of tape (probably to prevent the dish cloth from fall in) upon which I covered the bowl with a dish cloth, positioned the bowl in the corner of my kitchen and that was that.

Day 3: I decided that I would check the bowl every few days and when it looked like the substance had changed, I would document it via photo. So, here you can see some bubbles forming under and very thin skin of...bacteria? I guess that's what it is. Or shall we call it, kombucha culture? That sounds better.

Day 6: The top skin of kombucha culture definitely thickened. You can see bubbles under the surface and the top layer is starting to turn white.

Day 9: The top layer has grown to be about 1/4-inch thick and has become mostly white. It smells a little bit sour like vinegar and I noticed a fly in my kitchen appear out of nowhere. That may or may not be attributed to the kombucha. My directions had said that the kombucha will be ready in about a week to a week and a half, but you can brew it longer depending on how sour you like it. I like sour tangy things and it tasted way too sweet for me so I decided to keep brewing. However, it was slightly fizzy and had started to take on that fermented kombucha flavor.

Read the rest at GoodBite.com.

·Good Bite: How To Brea Your Own Kombucha

I Dine with Joel Robuchon at In-N-Out

2010-02-25T15:52:00.000-08:00

For anyone that missed my Good Bite article that bounced around the internet yesterday, here it is.

After the interview we piled into a RR Phantom and a driver brought us over to In-N-Out. He was completely fascinated by the whole experience and just looked around the whole time we were there. He ate a burger animal style and we all shared fries and shakes- he totally dug it. He was fascinated by American culture. Go figure.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel where he invited us on a tour of his insane suite in The Mansion...very cool. Obviously dinner was super amazing with 16 courses not including other bites, stay tuned for that post coming soon!

Why did you decide to open two restaurants in Las Vegas?
The president of MGM Grand Gamal Aziz suggested it, he asked if I would come to Las Vegas to open a restaurant. I said I would come and see what Las Vegas was, though I didn't know anything about Las Vegas...didn't know American culture. I came and he brought me by Le Cirque as well as other restaurants and I noticed how huge the restaurants were, that they could seat 300 people. I said, you know, to maintain the quality I don't think it's possible to have 300 covers. Aziz came to Paris and ate at L'Atelier and fell in love with the concept and so instead of doing one large restaurant he came up with two formulas. He decided we would create two small restaurants: L'Atelier and a different gastronomic restaurant. Two totally different concepts.

Do you have plans to open more restaurants in the near future?
My new projects include two restaurants which will will open at the end of this year in Singapore similar to what's here. L'Atelier and another more gastronomic restaurant.

What about in the US?
I would like to do something, there is one city I especially like which is Los Angeles. I really really really like Los Angeles.

Something like...
L'Atelier, L'Atelier. So I need to pick a place. Everyone says to me that location is so important. Los Angeles is magical. There's the sun and ocean...the atmosphere..for me it's great. Las Vegas and Los Angeles are right next to each other too...

Is there a specific part of LA that you are considering?
I'm not sure yet. I've asked advice from a lot of people. My friend, Wolfgang Puck, he told me that I should open near Spago in Beverly Hills. He said just by him there is a new hotel, the Montage. He actually talked to them on my behalf but the Montage didn't want me!

What!?
That's what he said. I don't know if it's true. He told them this would be a great concept but they never contacted me. Yes, yes, oh la la.

Do you have plans for another cookbook?
Books, yes.There's one that came out in December that was done in Japan. Basically it's about using Japanese ingredients to cook French food. It was recently translated. I also just came out with a "Best Of" type cookbook, and now I am working on a big project, it's going to be a big, big book almost like a dictionary but it's going to be almost all pictures.

You were on Top Chef, how did that come about?
I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't really know the show or what to expect. I just showed up at a location. They told me that some people would be cooking dishes but I couldn't see who they were and that I should say what I think about the dishes. It was nice, everybody got along really well, the chefs that were around the table were great and Padma was very nice.

How do you think cooking techniques have changed from when you started cooking versus now?
Well, there is a change in technique in my personal style. When I first started cooking I wanted to show everyone what I could do so I cooked very technical, complicated, sophisticated food. But now, I try to prepare the simplest dishes but the most wonderful dishes at the same time and this is the hardest thing to do. Now it's all about the challenges, how can I make this dish as simple as possible...

When you are at home, what do you cook for yourself?
I'm all by myself, what would I make? I am never at home. I am in Monaco, in Macao, in Hong Kong, in London, in New York...at home is here at my restaurants. I take a two month vacation per year, I have a home in Spain by the ocean near Valencia. I eat in restaurants all the time. But on the other hand, if you come to my house, I will cook for you.

Yes!

Have you had to adapt your cuisine for an American palate at your US restaurants?
No, I make true French cuisine. The important thing is that you always recognize what you are eating. It's about taking all the complicated stuff away so that when you see it, you know what it's going to taste like because you can recognize what you are eating.

Do you know In-N-Out Burger?
No...

[Joel's translators explain what In-N-Out Burger is.]

Is there one in Las Vegas?

[This turns into a very long discussion about In-N-Out, whether I like it, whether everyone else there likes it...then Joel realizes he hasn't eaten lunch and decides he wants to go to In-N-Out, at which point he asked if I will join him for lunch there after the interview.]

This is the best question you have asked since you got here because now we can have lunch with you! [Thus far I have neglected to mention that Joel might have taken a slight liking to me.]

Do you have advice for someone that is thinking about opening a restaurant in this economy?
Yes, one thing I teach young cooks is to think about who they are cooking for. Are you making this for your mom, wife, boyfriend, husband...and how different it would be if you were cooking a dish for them then for a customer for example. You see it. Sometimes you go to a restaurant and the restauranteur does not love people. If you don't love people you can't cook for people. If you come to a restaurant you should feel the love. Tonight when you come to dinner you will see how much love I have for you.

Are there any young up and coming chefs you think we should watch?
I have a Japanese cook who has worked for me for 12 years, Yosuke Suga. He used to be the executive chef of L'Atelier in New York but is now the executive chef a L'Atelier in Taipei. He's a little genius but nobody knows him because he has worked with me for so long, but he is one of the most talented cooks I've known. I think he's going to be extremely famous in a few years.

Read the rest at Goodbite.com.

Drink: Oro de Calabaza

2010-02-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

I was just about to go to sleep...but started reading through the NY Time's Wed. food section where I came across an article on Belgian-style beers. My absolute favorite beer which only recently has come available in CA (I stalked Ron Jeffries the brewer for a while until he sent be a bottle when I couldn't get it in LA) was rated #1 on their list, Oro de Calabaza from Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter Michigan. I've been drinking this SOUR beer (right this second I have 4 bottles of it in my fridge) for several years now- I had it for the first time at a Christina Perozzi beer dinner at Rustic Canyon...Here's an old post from almost exactly 1 year ago where I wrote about Oro...ugh, damn NY Times. Now it's going to be hard to find once again.

Cook: Fresh Pesto

2010-02-23T22:00:00.001-08:00

Lately, I've been eating out so much that I haven't had an opportunity to cook...as much as I would like. When I moved into my new apartment I decided to bribe the guy that was going to hang my tv with a home cooked meal. You hang my tv, I cook for you...good deal, right? So, I needed to come up with something yummy but not too complicated since I had to organize this all after like 12 hours of work. I decided to go with a quick pesto, some oven-roasted Brussels sprouts from the farmers market topped with chanterelles sauteed in white wine with thyme, and just a simple burrata caprese which I could throw together in a few minutes.

Did you know that the caprese salad originates from the Island of Capri off the Amalfi Coast? I was just there a few months and learned this fun fact. Anyway, here is a quick, tasty pesto recipe that can be organized quite quickly, even after working a full day.

So, at the time I didn't have my Cuisinart in my apartment so I had to be a bit resourceful with how to process my pesto...but here is the best recipe you will come across, and most importantly, make sure you buy a high quality Parmesan.

Pesto
2 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves
salt to taste
1/2 cup Parmesan
3 teaspoons toasted pine nuts

Blend all ingredients and season to taste with sale. Toss with fresh pasta. Leftover sauce can be frozen.

Vegas Highlights

2010-02-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

About 3ish weeks ago I was invited to Vegas to check out that new crazy huge CityCenter resort (and ironically I am going to Vegas again this weekend to interview Joel Robuchon!) and the previously listed post about Twist was my first dinner there.

I also ate at Sage, Bar Masa, American Fish, Julian Serrano...hmm and am I missing something?

I took a paella making class with Julian Serrano, which was very tasty. American Fish was better than I had expected...it's a Michael Mina restaurant and my fave dish was the Ocean Water-Poached Turbot in a basil tomato saffron broth.

Now, if you know me at all, you know I am not a huge cooked fish consumer, but with this preparation the fish was not at all fishy and the broth was delicate and delicious. I love things cooked in brodo (in both).

I am a huge oyster fan, so for dinner at Sage I went for the oysters with a type of Tabasco/mignonette, followed by yummy medallions of Iberico pork (yup, that awesome stuff form Spain where the pigs eat only acorns) though they could have been cooked a bit more rare. Dessert, typical French canele with some ice cream, good but not revolutionary.

One of my favorite dishes at Bar Masa was Persian cucumbers with micro greens and an arugula pesto- SO AMAZING. If you go here in Vegas, you must order this dish. Slightly tangy with the vinegar and overall very fresh flavor.

I don't know though. I think LA has some pretty phenomenal sushi and I really wasn't incredibly impressed with the sushi quality here. GR.