Mediterranean Feast Dinner Party

We hosted at the haunted mansion




The evite read like this: Hello my darling Messieurs et Madames! Travis and I (chef maestros extraordinaires) have been talking about having a co-dinner party on IM for ages. And we have finally done it! The theme will be Mediterranean. A little Greece, a little Spain, a little Italy, etc. Just bring yourselves and a little vino and your taste buds and prepare to be dazzled. Attire is cocktail lite... look sharp but no requirements. Opah and kali orexi (buon appetito)!

Travis and I really went all out on this one. We picked up supplies on Friday afternoon at my parents’ restaurant. It was fun to go shopping in the walk-in! Plus we got a really good free lunch out of the deal. And my aunt graciously let us use her fabulous quasi-mansion to host the party in South Pasadena. Somehow in all the photos it ends up looking like the haunted mansion….

Here is our fantastic menu:

Cocktail hour
Homemade hummus
Homemade tatziki
Homemade pita
Crudites with ranch
Cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto

Travis made the hummus, according to my strict instructions, and it turned out fabulously. I made the tatziki, and it wasn’t that good. I grated the cucumbers, and next time I think I am just going to dice them, so they add more of a crunch to the sauce. I made the pita, and I think I proofed them for too long, they were a little on the dry side. I will have to work at Daphne’s Greek Café for a day so I can steal their recipe. Ben made the cantaloupe, which was more of an assembly job, but it looked great! He was quite a help to Travis and I in those final moments when we were trying to get everything ready. Everything was paired with prosecco and pear juice cocktails. I wanted to make Bellinis, but pear was a good substitute for peach juice (which I couldn't find).


Me serving the warp appetizer course ---->

Warm apps
Spicy cheddar green pimiento olives
Bacon date blue cheese yummies (apparently called remoulade)

Zen and Ben (haha, I rhymed!) helped make the olives. They were supposed to be frozen before going in the oven and they sort of lost their shape and melted into one glob of cheese that stuck to the wax paper. But they TASTED amazing. I’m sure if we didn’t skip the freezing step next time, they would be fab. And of course, I had to make my bacon date things. Which my aunt informed me were really big in the 50’s and are called remoulade. Here I thought my genius chef friend came up with them all by herself. This course was paired with Trinchero chardonnay.



Laura serving up the salad with the main course

Pasta course
Pastitsio
Balsamic roasted tomatoes on goat cheese crostini

Pastitsio is a Greek dish, it’s basically macaroni layered with lamb ragout and then finished with a hearty béchamel. It is hands down one of my favorite dishes to make because it is SO good and pleases just about any palate. That was paired with these amazing roma tomatoes. Travis made those, according to Tracie’s recipe. They are so good. You roast them for over an hour in balsamic, and they turn out amazing. The sharp coolness of the goat cheese really contrasted with the sweet balsamic glaze. This course was paired with a nice Tuscan table wine, Cancelli by Coltibuono.

Everyone with the main course


Main course
Roasted rack of lamb in herb crust
Lamb burgers wrapped in prosciutto
Greek salad




The plated lamb burgers

Ok, I salted the lamb and it was too salty. BUT if you scrapped off some of the salt, the rack was delicious. Travis did a great job on them. They were succulent and flavorful. I wish I hadn’t been so full or I would have eaten more of them! Travis also made the lamb burgers according to a Giada de Laurentiis recipe. They were really good, especially since they were wrapped in prosciutto and finished with basil and roma tomatoes. We served it with a traditional greek salad. This was paired with my favorite affordable wine, Masi Campofiorin, which is an Amarone ripasso.

Travis and I getting ready for some main course action



Dessert
Espresso spiked with Frangelico
Homemade baklava

Honestly, this baklava was my crowning achievement of the evening. It took FOREVER to make. Each little layer of phyllo dough has to be brushed with butter. AND I had to shell the pistachios myself (which I will NEVER do again… I think it took me an hour to get the 1 ½ cups of pistachios. The reason I think this turned out so well is because I used a Turkish recipe. I loved the baklava when I went to Istanbul, but here in LA only the Greek version seems popular, which is much more sticky and sweet and not as delicate and buttery. Travis labored with my tiny espresso machine to make everyone espresso, and it truly was the perfect way to end the evening.

If anyone wants the recipes, please email me. All photos courtesy of O'Ryan McKinney.

Vegas Redux

This blog is a little late. Apparently since I got a boyfriend, I’ve had less time on my hands. :-) So the law school girls and I went to Vegas this winter break again. Ok, it wasn’t all law school girls. Tracie and Sapna joined me from last time, and my friend Laura. We had SUCH a great time. We were all kind of frazzled from the holidays, but our excellent meals kind of made up for it.

We stayed at the MGM Grand because I got this amazing deal there. I wish I could have afforded to go to craftsteak. I admit, I’m a fan of Top Chef , and I’d love to see Colicchio’s place in action. Plus, Irene Verbila of the LA Times raved over his new LA place, Craft. Which is now on the list of places I REALLY want to go but can ill afford. And unfortunately, I am not going to be the evil kind of lawyer who starts out at $160,000 as a first year associate. But I digress. The POINT is, we couldn’t afford craftsteak, but we COULD afford ‘wichcraft. Which is the low budget sandwich place. It was just what we needed after having our obligatory shot of Patron upon landing (it’s Tracie’s fault! :-)). They had all this amazing stuff on the menu. BUT they had a prosciutto and sweet butter sandwich. This was my favorite sandwich when I was a kid. When we would go to the mountains, my mom would put butter and prosciutto on a French roll. It was amazing. I thought this was some weird Dutch Italian combo thing, but if Colicchio’s doing it, it can’t be THAT weird. Oh god, it was fantastic. I was transported to my childhood spent riding down flying saucers in Angeles Crest. Sapna and Tracie shared some fantastic panini which they let me nibble on. Kind of pricey for sandwiches, but my childhood memories are priceless, people.


Sapna at Penazzi showcasing a double magnum


Now while I myself can’t afford fancy restaurants, my dad is “connected.” Not in the mafia way people! (Sheesh, always thinking the worst of us eye-ties.) He sells wine to fine Italian restaurants all over Southern California, and many of those restaurants are opening spots in Vegas. Soo we go to Penazzi, which is owned by Gabriele Penazzi. He used to run the Harry’s Bar in Century City, and the Harry’s Bar in La Jolla. I used to visit him with my dad at both locations, and he remembered me. Plus, he was happy to host 4 lovely ladies on a slow Wednesday night right after Christmas. Penazzi is in Harrah’s, but don’t let that stop you from going there. Gabriele gave us the VIP treatment. We started with Bellinis, and then he brought out a white and a red wine since we couldn’t decide on which we wanted. We had a lovely appetizer with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and various tapenades. Then we had Penne alla Vodka, the only cream sauce I really crave. It was delicious and tasty. THEN, we had the most amazing scallops I have had in a long time. They were succulent, crispy seared, and fantastic. They didn’t even need the sauce they were laying on. They just melted in my mouth. Mmmm. The scallops were paired with a mild white fish, halibut I believe, which was passably good but paled next to those scallops. Then, Laura wanted a martini, so our waiter brought us ALL martinis. Just look how beautiful they are in the picture! My favorite was definitely the limoncello one—but I have a soft spot for the stuff. We had a nice dessert platter which we managed to make quite a dent in even though we were “stuffed.” Then Gabriele brought us some Rosa Regale, which is a sparking red dessert wine, which Sapna loved, and chocolate grappa. Now, I think grappa is the devil. However, flavored grappa is awesome. And this was like chocolate syrup with booze. So I finished off those for everyone. :-)



Tracie loves a good martini-- just like the next girl!


On our second night, Daddy worked his connection magic, and got us into Valentino. Now you all know from my previous posts, I adore Valentino, and I the one in Vegas is my favorite. Luciano Pellegrini is the chef, and James Beard award winner. AND he came to say hi to our table. But I’m getting ahead of myself! The ladies followed my lead on wine and apps (which I appreciate—because I know what I’m doing!) We ordered the Masi Campofiorin, which is an Amarone ripasso, and I just adore that wine. For appetizers we had the most amazing oysters I have ever had. And I have had a lot of amazing oysters. They were served raw with a delicate leek sauce and precious drops of tuna roe. Absolutely perfect… they tasted like I was taking a bite out of the sea. Then we also had a mozzarella buratta with culatello, which is one of the best cured meats, an excellent tuna sashimi, and very good scallops. For our main entrees, Tracie got lobster over homemade black fettuccine in an arrabiata sauce. It was so delicious. The lobster was tender and delicate, and the black fettuccine was PHENOMENAL. It was so clearly homemade, perfectly cooked, and had that faint nutty flavor from the squid ink (which makes it balck). Laura ordered pork loin in apple cider brine, which I almost ordered myself, and it was so good. Pork tenderloin is so difficult to cook because of its low fat content, which makes it try out very easily. This was perfectly tender and juicy. I ordered veal in demiglasse sauce with fresh polenta. I absolutely adore fresh polenta, and will order almost anything if it comes with it. This veal was just delicious little morsels which I could cut with my fork. Tracie and I kept trading lobster for veal, as we couldn’t decide which dish was better. Sapna ordered a nice white fish which I took a bite of. It was quite good, but not a brilliant star like the rest of our food. Then we ordered the soufflé, which rose perfectly and was everything you’d expect. That is when chef Pellegrini came to greet us. We had mentioned we were looking for a club to go to, so Carlo Cannuscio (the manager) got us VIP entrance to TAO, he walked us right in! He said he never walks people up there, but we were VIP. Hahahaha. I’m sure he says that to all the beautiful ladies. All in all, we had lots of fun, but the food was definitely the highlight of the trip.





Laura and I enjoying cocktails at Rouge in the MGM

CUT

The four of us gorgeous ladies, Rania, me, Julia and Julie



I first heard about CUT from my friend Steve (of Nicole’s Gourmet Foods), which was voted Best French Market by Los Angeles Magazine! (Congrats Steve!!!) I’ve been a big fan of the magazine ever since they called my dad “wine guru.” For a while, I was trying to get him to pitch a reality show with him as the main attraction, and I thought we could call it Wine Guru. I mean, if you’ve ever met my dad, he is completely irreverent and hilarious, and you can learn about wine while you laugh your butt off!

Anyway, Steve said CUT was Wolfgang Puck’s new steakhouse, it was good, blah blah blah. Honestly, I think Wolfgang Puck is kind of a sellout. I like his place in the Venetian, Postrio, because they have lobster burgers. I think technically it’s called “the lobster club with bacon.” But I mean, he has his own line of coffee. What the hell does he know about coffee??? Okay. Rant over. But after I saw CUT made it on the LA Weekly’s 99 Essential Restaurants inn LA List I knew I had to go. Because my New Year’s Resolution for 2008 is going to be to visit every restaurant on that list, and I need to get a jump start otherwise I’ll never be able to afford it. AND (one more plug for Los Angeles magazine) they voted the potato tarte tartin as one of the best steakhouse sides in LA. Just a word of warning though, it's located at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, so be prepared to see MULTIPLE Lamborghinis out front, high class Russian hookers, and lots of Persian people.

To start off the night, we get drinks at Sidebar *insert lawyer joke here*, while we are waiting for our table. It’s very sleek and chic, just opposite the foyer from CUT. This is where we saw our first Russian hookers. They looked good, though. I’d say, $1000 a pop, minimum. The martinis were about $15, but were really tasty. I wanted to order a Bellinissimo, but they were out of peach juice or something. I love Bellinis because they come from Harry’s Bar in Venice. So the Bellinissimo was basically a Bellini (peach juice and champagne) with some top shelf booze thrown in. I can’t remember the name of what I ordered, but it was vanilla vodka with lime and champagne. I didn’t think vanilla and lime would work very well, but the cocktail waitress recommended it. It was an interesting flavor match, very aromatic. Totally different, and quite tasty. Julie ordered something that tasted like straight tequila, and Julia had a subtly fruity martini. Only about 3 crusty 65 year old men tried to talk to us, so it wasn’t THAT bad. Oh, and they give you the best bar munchies. Marinated kalamata olives, wasabi peas, and housemade honey roasted almonds, among other things. Way better than some pretzels on the bar which have been there since 1984.




Rania, Julie and I at CUT

The weirdest thing about CUT by far is the “beefolier” part. I guess beefolier is supposed to be like a sommelier, but for beef. So they come to your table with like 6 cuts of beef, nicely stacked and wrapped in napkins. I think they do it to upsell the Japanese wagyu, because he kept pointing out the “superior marbling” when compared to the American wagyu. Of course, if I had $100 to spend on 6 ounces of steak (no, I’m not exaggerating the price) then I would have ordered it. I REALLY considered it. But normally, I’m expecting to drop $100 on an ENTIRE steak dinner. But for just the steak? I’m still a starving student here, people. And look, I know I’m eating a cow. I like meat. But I really don’t want to see a bunch of chunks of raw beef at the end of my table. Sorry!

So, we finally sit down, and I want to share the American wagyu porterhouse with Julie, and she’s down. I love porterhouses. Filet + New York = What’s Not to Love? But No-o-o-o-o, we get the 21 day aged Illinois porterhouse instead. Because they have run out of the American wagyu. On a Friday night. I mean, really??? Anyway, for a New York, it was pretty good. I used to always order New York steak when I was a kid because I was born in New York, and I thought I should support my peeps. Nowadays, since it’s kind of a fatty cut, if it’s not really high quality, I’m not into it. I’m just a filet kinda girl. And this filet mignon was AWESOME. It was perfectly grilled, cooked, and seasoned. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but that’s because I’ve had filets of better quality. But they did an excellent job with what they were working with. Plus, it’s fun to order a porterhouse because they make such a big deal about the presentation. The guy comes to your table and chop chop chops it all up. I think one of the secrets to the flavor is the steaks are grilled over hardwood and charcoal, and then finished in a 1200 degree broiler. Kinda hard to replicate at home.

Now for the sides. We order the tarte tartin, because all the cut reviews rave about it (and everyone at the table is following my lead on this stuff). But, I don’t know WHY this is be-all-end-all of steakhouse sides. It was merely ok. It was crispy and a little greasy. Definitely not the best side in LA. I also ordered the chantrelles, because I LOVE them. However, when the dish arrived, I asked, “Where are they?” Because there were about three chantrelles with a bunch of waxy green beans. The true side star was the grilled corn. It was AMAZING. I ate the whole thing after everyone got a taste. The corn was really fresh and crisp, and then smoky from the grilling. Very simple, but perfect. We also got the white polenta with parmesan which was passably good. It was a little too creamy. Maybe they added butter or there was too much cheese? The flavor was good, but it was thisclose to being gluteny. Of course, I’m picky about polenta. Nobody makes it as good as Mom does. ;-)

Now for the desserts. Of course, we ordered the chocolate soufflé. Holy crap. It was FANTASTIC. It came with this cocoa gelato, which was okay, kinda lacking on the sweetness. But this soufflé, OMG. It was rich, and flavorful, but not too heavy. I could have eaten about three of them, even though I was really full. I also wanted to try the Boston cream pie dessert, since that is my favorite doughnut. Unfortunately, it was a disaster and I’m sorry I was the reason we ordered it. The top was solid chocolate, which was too thick to break easily with a fork and didn’t work well with the spongy cake and really thin layer of pastry cream. I felt bad, because the girls were following my lead on the ordering and I came up with a couple of duds. Julia and Julie ordered coffee, and it smelled divine. Maybe Wolfgang does know a thing or two about coffee. Yes, we’re on a first name basis..... kidding!!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JULIE (with the ill-fated Boston Cream Pie)

Shiro South Pasadena

Everyone at Shiro


Last week for my friend Claire’s birthday, her parents took her to Shiro in South Pasadena. I was lucky enough to be on the invite list. I had never even heard of this gem, right in the same plaza as Lucha’s Comfort Shoes, a store I frequent because I’m a granola eating hippie when it comes to shoes. I started out with the Chinese Ravioli. They are stuffed with shrimp mousse and come in a shitake mushroom cream sauce. They were divine. I ordered them because Ruth Reichl adored them. She is my idol. I <3 Ruth Reichl. I wish I could BE Ruth Reichl. For those of you who *gasp* don’t know who she is, she’s the editor of Gourmet Magazine (of which I am a subscriber) and she used to be the NY Times food critic. I have several of her books. We share our knack for food memory. But I digress... back to these divine ravioli. Now, the pasta part was a little more reminiscent of a won ton wrapper (although made with wheat durum flour), but the filling was absolutely divine. Flavorful and light all at the same time. There was a generous heaping of shitake mushrooms which were just a tad bit firm for my taste, but very fresh. The sauce was made with about 2 cups of heavy cream, so it was tasty. They even serve it with a spoon so you can savor every last drop. However, I figured by not licking up the sauce I saved myself about 600 calories. Claire ordered the tuna sashimi, which looked really fresh. Apparently the chef goes to the fresh fish market every morning to pick out the evening’s catch (although the fish market is not open on Sunday... so this was not morning fresh. But still good.)



The most amazing catfish you have ever tasted


Apparently for the main course the thing to get is the whole sizzling catfish. Our friend Jason ordered it and let me have a bite. Oh mi god. HEAVEN. Even the little pieces of crispy ginger accenting the cuts in the fish were tasty. It just melted in my mouth but still packed that big catfish flavor. And there were crunchy cornmeal bits. I was so jealous. They serve the fish whole, with head and all, but they kind of artfully cut it up so it’s easy to eat. And they kind of cover up the head with parsley if you’re weird about that stuff. (See, the picture above is not that bad!) I would definitely order it the next time I go (and there will be a next time!) I ordered the Australian John Dory (a flaky white fish) which came in a champagne curry sauce with divine prawns. I was so full, but I still ate it all. And when Claire couldn’t finish her lobster, well, I had to oblige. It was fabulous. Succulent, just a smidge undercooked to make sure it didn’t get tough. So good. And Jason’s fish came with au gratin scalloped potatoes which must have come from heaven. The best I’ve ever had, hands down. No weird congealed milky cheesy bits (which I can never seem to avoid when I make them myself... anyone have tips?), and the potatoes were perfectly cooked, they were firm enough not to fall apart, but cut easily with the edge of a fork. The potatoes, like the shitake sauce, had about 2 cups of heavy cream... but I would have licked the sauce if they were mine. ;-)



Claire and her Momma

Now, I know I said I was full. And I was. But the dessert menu was just too tempting and everyone else was ordering... so I bowed to peer pressure. Not like they had to twist my arm or anything! I ordered the Grand Marnier Baked Peach with Vanilla Ice Cream & Caramel Sauce. WOW. The peach still had the skin on it, but since it was poached in Grand Marnier it actually ADDED to the flavor of the peach without the weird texture ramifications I expected. And the ice cream. MMMMM. Vanilla bean. I bet from Madagascar. :-) Although I hear Kenyan vanilla is making waves lately... once again I digress. Even though I was ridiculously full I ate the whole dang thing. Alona ordered the chocolate torte soufflé which was not a soufflé at all but a poorly executed flourless chocolate cake. Booo! At least the waiter explained it wasn’t really a soufflé when she ordered it. I swear, no place makes good flourless chocolate cake anymore! The restaurant I used to work at in San Diego, Trattoria Positano, had amazing flourless chocolate cake. I guess Amalia should sell her recipe or something. Anyway, bottom line is Shiro is amazing. It’s not cheap, but anything worth eating is worth paying for in my book. :-) Luckily Claire’s parents thought so too, so I had one of the best free-to-me dinners EVER. I only wish Claire had birthdays more often!






Claire and Jason as she makes a wish

Café des Artistes

Normally I don’t eat French food. I come from a long line of French-hating Italians. In fact, if someone offers my dad French wine, his standard line is: “I don’t drink that French shit.” However, I did take French in high school, and I’ve been to France multiple times (and the food is good there). Since Ryan likes French food, and has made me at least tolerate it through our many visits to La Poubelle, AND since our good friend Steve is actually French, I thought, why not? Now, the only other decent French place I’ve been to besides La Poubelle (which is very casual) is Le Petit Bistro when I went senior year with my French class. And all I remember is it was expensive and not that good.



Julie and me


So, for Juju Wednesday (Julie and Julia put together dinner dates around town—hence the juju name), we went to Café des Artistes. I was in the middle of finals, so this was a welcome respite from learning the intricacies of international law and criminal procedure. Of course, the first thing I look for on the menu is frog legs. And they don’t have them. I mean, what self respecting French restaurant doesn’t have frog legs??? But they did have Moules et frites (steamed black mussels and french fries), which is the national dish of Belgium. The last time I had moules et frites I was actually IN Belgium (and that was awhile ago) so I decided to order it. And I ordered a decent Vignonais which was only $32. This wine was introduced to me by that French guy I dated for a nanosecond (which I thought was appropriate since we were at a French place), but he ordered the Coppola version which cost twice as much. French guy did have excellent taste in wine. And women. Haha! But I digress.



Ryan, Julia, and me



What did everyone order? To start with, Ryan and I shared the oysters. They were ENORMOUS, really fresh, and really good. They were literally the largest oysters I have ever consumed (and I have consumed my fair share of oysters). Laura got the goat cheese salad. Other people ordered various salads, but the tastiest thing was the sausage with Moroccan dip which Steve and Julia ordered. The sausage was juicy and succulent with just a hint of caraway seed, and the sauce was filled with different exotic flavors (probably turmeric, etc.) and quite tasty.

For the main course, Julia ordered stewed beef short ribs over fettuccine. The meat was excellent. It just fell apart on my fork. It was stewed in this tasty brown wine sauce, and I could have eaten tons of it. I didn’t bother tasting the fettuccine, because we all know French people don’t know how to make pasta (Steve confirmed this). Laura had escargot as a main course. Gross. I have tried them multiple times. Invariably I suck off the butter and garlic and spit out the snail. She said they were good though. Bryan ordered some fish thing over beans. It looked healthy so I didn’t ask for a bite. Julie, my hero, ordered the mac & cheese. Great cheese flavor, nice cheese crust, but the casserole was just oily noodles. A thicker roux was needed to stand up to the tasty crust. Steve ordered filet mignon, surprising me by not ordering the ribeye. It came with french fries (and who can do those better than the French?). And those were yummy fries! But my favorite fries by far are either garlic fries or greek fries. These fries were basically like really really good McDonald's fries. Rania got the mushroom ravioli, which I didn’t try. I had just met her, and I'm a little bit of a closet freak about my food obsession, so I didn't ask. As for my mussels, they were good, but the sauce needed more flavor. A little dash of white pepper and more garlic to liven it up would have been perfect. At least the fries were good!



Me squeezing Laura


Now for the desserts. This is the area where the French can actually outshine the Italians. Julie and I ordered the brioche bread pudding. It was nothing short of AMAZING. It was drizzled with this delicious caramel sauce. Each piece was dripping with custardy goodness. We also ordered the crème brulee, which was decent, but not fantastic. I’m really picky about crème brulee. I want to see fresh grated vanilla bean in that custard! The true dud of the evening was the flourless chocolate cake. It was more like a flavorless flourless brick than cake. I definitely needed the vanilla bean ice cream to even get it down. Obviously the pastry chef didn’t use the right sugar to butter ratio. I mean, I’ve had Pillsbury brownies that were better than this thing. LONG LIVE JUJU WEDNESDAYS!

Dinner Party Club

All of us in Sapna's fabulous living room



The Vegas Loyola gals plus our friend Alex decided to start a dinner party club, since we all love cooking and eating. Sapna hosted the first one, back in January, and naturally prepared us an Indian feast. (We wanted Sapna to make us Indian food, Alex to make us Armenian food, and me to make us Italian food. Tracie is British, so naturally we DIDN’T want her to make us British food… but then again maybe she could change our minds with some of the “jewels” of British cuisine… if they exist. Katherine is totally American, but she IS from Texas, which we don’t hold against her because she’s awesome, so maybe she could make us some Tex-Mex stuff.) But I digress.

Tracie with some of the spread




Sapna started us out with a variety of Indian appetizers, including homemade samosas stuffed with potatoes, peas, and spices, and other pastries with caramelized onion, and some with mixed mushrooms. These were served with a variety of delicious sauces, including mint, and tamarind/date and I forget what else. We sat in her Morroccan-inspired living room, which was featured on HGTV (I’m friends with famous people!). The main course was fabulous. We had stewed chicken in a flavorful broth, yummy basmati rice, chapati (an unleavened pancake-like bread, similar in flavor to nan, but not as thick, and not prepared in a tandoori oven), and delicious cucumber yogurt sauce. Alex brought some delicious pastries, and fun was had by all.

These chapati things are addictive




For my dinner party, as an appetizer I decided to make my delicious bacon-date-blue-cheese- things. Mostly because I wanted to eat them, and everyone loves them. I used Neiman’s Ranch uncured applewood smoked bacon this time, and it was yummers. I also wanted to do a nice cheese board, because this would distract everyone while I labored over the main course, a porcini mushroom risotto. So I went to Steve’s store to get the Arborio rice, cheese, and porcini. For the board, I picked a humbolt fog (yummy goat cheese), Spanish Mahon (mild cow’s milk), English cheddar (mmm one of my favorites), and a Roquefort (stinky French blue). The Roquefort was the real hit, it was tangy but not too stinky. I rounded out the board with some seedless red grapes, provencal black olives, pimiento-stuffed olives, and sesame water crackers.

The spread at my house



Now for the main course! I LOVE porcini mushroom risotto. My mom made it when I was a kid, and it’s a specialty of my dad’s region in Italy (oftentimes the relatives will prepare it when I come to visit, and I always ask for seconds). I got some recipe pointers from Checco, the amazing chef at my parents’ restaurant . He told me to sauté whole garlic in some EVOO until it was burnt, then to take it out. He said adding the actual garlic or onions would overpower the flavor of the porcini. Apparently shallots would be OK, but not necessary. (I just left them out.) I used dried porcini, which I soaked overnight in what started out as boiling water. I also used frozen porcini, which I defrosted overnight in the refrigerator. I diced them all up and mixed them together, and added them to the garlic olive oil and sautéed for about a minute. Next, I added some of the porcini water and then the Arborio rice (about 1 lb.) and a cup of chicken stock. I just used boxed chicken broth, and I threw in a porcini mushroom bullion cube for some flavor. I kept adding broth one cup at a time until the risotto was al dente (about 20-30 minutes). I then mixed in some EVOO, parmesan cheese, and some cilantro (I actually prefer it over parsley because it has a more tangy lemony flavor). And it was divine! Not the best I’ve ever had, but passably good.


The group at my house

To round out the meal we had some delicious pain rustique from Trader Joe’s (crusty French bread which is not all the way cooked, so 10 minutes in the oven makes it perfect), and a salad with homemade honey balsamic dressing, sliced strawberries, and toasted slivered almonds. For dessert we had mini-cheesecakes, also from Trader Joe’s. I LOVE that place. For the wine selection, we started out with an amazing 1993 Barbaresco (Produttori di Barbaresco). I break out the good stuff for special occasions. :-). Then we moved on to one of my favorites, Tuttobene, which is a new supertuscan; a Bogle cabernet; a Korbel rosé; and a Fantinel Pinot Grigio. Mmm! For our round of Trivial Pursuit, I broke out more cheese and some hard salami. Hehe, I don’t mess around when it comes to food and hosting!

AGO West Hollywood

The Magnolia crew, some of whom accompanied me to Ago



So we go to Ago, arguably the best Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. (And I can argue, trust me, I’m a proto-lawyer.) Ago is constantly in Us Weekly (last week Madonna and Guy Ritchie went there). The night we were there, only Ariana Huffington and Eric Benet showed up. But normally it's good for some celebrity spotting. Juju (a.k.a. Julie and Julia) have a Wednesday night tradition of going out to fabulous dinners. Sometimes they let Danny and Steve come along. Now I was eavesdropping on their conversation during one of our many nights at Magnolia, and they said they wanted to go to Ago. Now, I actually KNOW Agostino Sciandri (the chef/owner). I went to his daughter’s fricking wedding people! And I know all the waiters, since they are old timers who worked with my dad at Madeo, Perino’s and the Rex. So, I tell them if they go, they have to take me so we can get VIP treatment. And we did!

I arrive, and Stefano, the manager, greets me Italian style (kiss kiss!). Michele is there (who married Ago’s daughter, so I went to his wedding too I suppose). We go to our table, and who is our waiter? SAVERIO! I have known Saverio since I was a kid. In fact, he used to live at our house in Glendale. I made his bed one day, and he said in thanks he would buy me whatever I wanted. I told him I needed a two-wheel bike because I was getting too old for my tricycle. And of course he had to buy it for me. Ah, the manipulative nature of little girls. *sigh!* Frankly, it’s a wonder that anyone reproduces, SERIOUSLY. Ok, ok, now for the food!

I split the burrata appetizer with Jordan, with green beans. MMM. I love a soft gooey mozzarella, and that’s exactly what a burrata is! Steve and Julia had mozzarella caprese, which was also very high quality mozzarella (and Steve should know, he’s in “the business” of cheese). Danny had like, a green salad (lame! I mean, c’mon!). Julie and Morgan had white asparagus which they shared with the rest of us luckily. Drizzled with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and grated Grana Padana… FABULOUS! I love white asparagus when they’re done right. Unfortunately if they are done WRONG they are stringy and tough… these didn’t even need a fork. I love white asparagus especially because they are a specialty from my dad’s region in Italy. That’s why all the farmers there drive Mercedes Benzes. They have the white asparagus monopoly. Yay abolition of antitrust!

For entrees, Steve had the lamb which was THE BEST I have EVER tasted! It didn’t need a knife, it just melted, the flesh was thick and juicy. MMMM. Julie and I are carnivores, so we both got the wood burning oven seared Ribeye. It was tasty, but a little too burned on the outside (wood can be hard to control, and we ordered medium rare, I mean, it shouldn’t have been charred) and the cut was a bit fatty. Ribeye should be nicely marbled, not fully of nasty fatty chunks. Julia had the spinach agnellotti in a butter sage sauce, and we all know I BRAKE for butter sage sauce. Morgan had the grouper over artichokes with cherry tomatoes, which was flaky and delicious! The sauce was simple and flavorful and really worked with the delicate nature of the fish. The funniest part of the grouper was Saverio’s description of it as a “deep sea fish” to which he used his hand to explain DEEP in the sea. Danny had the grilled swordfish which was SO amazing. OMG. However, ever since Kitchen Confidential all I can think about swordfish is it’s teeming with worms and they die when you cook it so it’s OK, but I really don’t order it anymore (it used to be my favorite after shark… which now I can’t order because I’ll get mercury poisoning… ugh!) Jordan ordered the homemade linguine with lobster. The lobster was tasty tender and infused with flavor, but the pasta left a lot to be desired. The best Italian restaurant in LA can’t make a decent pasta? Are we serious people? GET IT TOGETHER!!!!

And dessert was a little bit of everything! They just brought over a platter, on the house! Tiramisu, banana tart, strawberry tart, walnut apple tart, ricotta cheesecake, mixed berry tart, and chocolate tart. My favorites were the tiramisu (Mario’s recipe which they still use even though they allegedly fired him) and the ricotta cheesecake. For wine we started with the Antinori Peppoli Chianti (which is great to order in a crowd since it pleases EVERY palate), and two bottles of Brancaia Il Blu. I love the Brancaia, bold, full, and great with a huge steak. And all our wine was COMPED. (I said VIP didn’t I???) AMAZING!!! Oh, I forgot to mention the homemade bread and focaccia. The focaccia had a nice flavor, but was a little dry, even with all the EVOO slathered all over it. Overall though, the meal was SOOO good, even AWESOME. The best part of course, is the company you bring with you to your meal. I love you guys!!! ;-)

Vegas, Baby!

At the Monte Carlo Cafe, where we became regulars



The day after fall semester finals, three of my friends from law school and I took off for Vegas. We show up at the Monte Carlo, put our stuff in the room, and head for the in-house brewery. Tracie has a tradition in Vegas, a shot of Patron Silver all around as you arrive. Naturally, we couldn’t break tradition. And we had a bunch of greasy food at the brewery. I got the chili con carne. We shared fried calamari. Tracie got mini burgers, Katherine got a Caesar Salad, Sapna got soup (I think it was creamy clam chowder which I avoid, something about clams and cream makes me rebel). For greasy bar food, it wasn’t that bad. Plus we were really hungry after getting off the plane.

That night, I could have gone to the steak house at the Bellagio with aunt, uncle and cousins. Apparently it was amazing and they sat next to George Clooney. But, I was in the mood to hang out with my girls. While Sapna and I were taking a nap, Tracie and Katherine snuck off and entered a poker tournament at the Paris. Tracie won 4th place! So we go over to the Paris to pick Tracie up, and it is FREEZING and we are STARVING, and since P.F. Chang’s was right there, we decide to go in. It’s packed so we decide to eat at the bar. Tracie used to work at the Chang’s in Sherman Oaks, so she’s chatting up the bartender. (Who told me his name was Superman.) We all share this AMAZING bottle of pinot noir, Estancia, and Tracie and Sapna get these weird cocktails (of which Chang’s has a lot) which were actually kinda good. We started off with the chicken lettuce wraps which are one of my favorites. They are greasy and yummy, but you can convince yourself they are healthy because of all the lettuce involved. We got the salt and pepper shrimp (I could have eaten 10 servings of this), garlic snap peas (you can never have too much garlic), brown rice, and I can’t remember what else. It was sooo yummy. Just what we needed before a night of gambling in Downtown Vegas. My cousins met up with us, and fun was had by all.

The gals at PF Chang's.








Sapna turned in early, but at about 4 a.m. I demanded that Tracie, Katherine and I get breakfast. We went to the café at the Monte Carlo and had a club sandwich and an egg/bacon/hashbrown plate. Katherine told me it was the best idea I ever had. Nothing like eggs at 4 a.m. I say!



High quality food at the Monte Carlo

So the next night, we decide we needed to actually go to a real restaurant and go dancing. We head over to the MGM, hoping to go to Studio 54. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations for New Year’s. Boo! So we go to Centrifuge, this weird bar where the bartenders dance on the tables every 30 minutes, and we chat up our bartender asking where we can get some dancing action. Apparently the only game in town is Tao at the Venetian. We decide to get food at the MGM and head over.

What do we find at the MGM? Shibuya! We ordered this mushroom amazingness dish, it was mixed sautéed mushrooms, with I don’t know what, but it was oh-so good; the ahi tuna tartare tower, which was good, and some assorted sushi. The place is tres chic, a bit overpriced, but it was good. Then we proceeded to Tao where we jumped the line because we were so gorgeous. Then we ended up back at the café at 4 a.m.




Shibuya agreed with us. We really complemented the fabulous decor.

Now, every time I go to Vegas, I want to go to Burger Bar at the Mandalay Bay! So I convince the girls this is where we gotta go. I mean, they have burgers with truffles and fois gras! I got the Kobe beef burger with a fried egg (ever since I had this at Fatburger I’ve been addicted). Sweet potato fries. Pitcher of Newcastle. Unfortunately, none of us could afford the $60 fois gras truffle burger, but maybe next time if I have a winning streak. Ironically, this was our most expensive meal!

Mmm. YAY! Nothing like good food, good times, and good friends.




Me sleeping on the plane home. Soooo attractive. Ugh! Need to start that diet!

Christmas Madness!

Elizabeth, Chelsea and Candy in front of Chelsea's gorgeous centerpiece



The spread



Daddy carving up the turkey










Christmas Eve:

Starts out with me running around the grocery store looking for gruyere to make my savory cheese puffs, and CURSING myself for being too disorganized to get it in time from Steve's store. So, I'm wondering if Ementaler is going to be a good substitute all by itself, or if I should combine it with some cheddar or Havarti to kick it up a notch, so I call Steve. He first chastises me for not buying it at the store, but then greenlights my substitution. OK, good. I get home and shoot off an email to Steve apologizing for being so hyper-holiday on the phone, and assure him I'm not on drugs or anything. (Normally I'm very chill, but when I'm rushing and need to get a bunch of things done in a short amount of time I turn into what my ex calls "work mode," from my days working as a server.)

Now, gotta prep the dough for the rolls since it has to be refrigerated overnight. And it's sticky, why is it sticky? I put so much flour in it! Ugh! And the egg wasn't even that big! Now I'm wondering if I measured the milk incorrectly or put the yeast in too-warm water. Curse my inadequate memory! Ugh. Whatever, it's going in the fridge and I'll deal with potential disasters tomorrow. I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off since I have to leave at 1 p.m. to work at my parents' restaurant. Merry Fricking Christmas to me. And since Alessandra is in South Dakota with her husband, my options were 1) work at the restaurant, make money, and have lobster, or 2) sit at home by myself and cry watching some stupid Christmas movie. Naturally, I chose option 1.

Mmmm mmmmm mmmm and Francesco (the chef) can make him some lobster. He's cute, awesome, and I have a soft spot for a man who can cook. He's from Venice and we talked about Padova (where I used to live, which is 30 minutes from Venice). He used to have a one-Michelin-star restaurant there. Too bad he's 40 and married with child. *sigh* The lobster was grilled, so it was super tasty, and kind of crunchy, since he split it in two to do the grilling. And I started with a baby octopus salad, and my dad paired it all with this AMAZING Soave (white wine from my Dad's region of Italy). And almost all my tables left me 20%. Not bad for being out of practice for a few years. It's totally weird using a computer to send the orders (I know, I'm a fricking restaurant dinosaur), but whatever, I'm adaptable. And my dad keeps going to the tables and being like, "dis is my dodder, she is going to be bigtime lawyer," and I'm like, "Dad, shut the hell up, they don't want their server to be smarter than them, they want to imagine me going home to my trailer park and 3 children under 5." But then they think he is cute, and don't really understand what he says anyway, so, I ended up OK.

Christmas Day:

Morning Prep

The alarm goes off at 9. Ugh. I run around the kitchen deciding which dishes I need to wash, when I see it. A bowl with something that looks like ghee in it. Oh no. It can only be… the melted butter I forgot to put in the rolls. At least I figured out why they were sticky. So I take the dough out of the fridge, melt a new half stick of butter and work it in. Roll crisis averted. I KNEW there was something wrong with the dough. Now, onto the Zuppa Inglese. I made a custard for it (which was really better than the finished dessert), and layered it with Amaretto and Frangelico soaked poundcake slices, and topped it with some homemade whipped cream. Then, onto the cheese puffs. I’m starting to run short on time, but I’ll be damned if I went through the gruyere debacle only to not make them. In the middle of the recipe I get confused, BECAUSE THERE IS AN INSTRUCTION MISSING. I have two piles of dough, and nowhere did it say, COMBINE. So I hope that now is the time to do the combining, get a second opinion from Mom, and then start baking them. (Luckily, they turned out fine.) Now, for the hard part. Blue cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. I don’t have a recipe, but I saw Sidoe do it. OMG I DID NOT BUY PITTED DATES!!!!! So now I have to figure out how to pit a fricking date. 30 minutes and one sticky chopstick and pair of tweezers later, they are pitted. What a pain, I am not making that mistake again. I awkwardly stuff them with blue cheese (Sidoe made this all look way easier, but she is a professional chef), wrap them in bacon and pop them in the oven after the cheesepuffs.



My cheese puff yummies (we ate all the bacon things before I could take a picture)

Then I take a shower. In the middle of the shower the smoke alarm goes off. I didn’t think about the fact that bacon releases a lot of grease and since I put the dates on a cookie sheet and not a jelly roll pan, all the grease is just dripping and catching fire at the bottom of my oven. It is at this moment I realize I have not wrapped any presents. I’m in my towel, opening windows and disabling the smoke detectors. I decide I need reinforcements. I call my parents. On each of their cell phones, and on their house phone, and they don’t pick up any of them NOR do they call me back. *ugh!* This is why people hate Christmas. Anyway, we finally get our crap together and leave.



My Zuppa Inglese------------>


Dinner!

So we arrive at casa Redcay, and let everyone go to town on the appetizers. Daddy opens this amazing wine, made by the people who do Sassicaia... it goes really well with the bacon date things. To my delight, Robby has in fact already MADE the eggnog, all we have to do is fold in some egg whites later. Robby also made the mashed potatoes. He has skill, but this time they were a little chunky for my taste, but the flavors were spot on. And the problem is if you overmash, they get gluteny and become inedible. So erring on the side of undermashing was a good call. The turkey was absolutely gorgeous, brined to perfection. Plus the Redcays actually know how to make gravy so it was super tasty too.



Elizabeth working her green bean magic --->



The modified stuffing recipe turned out good, they substituted corn and other veggies for the apricots, but it was a little too herby for me. Too many flavors and I just get overwhelmed. But there was this wild rice dressing with pomegranate seeds, and that was super incredible. Apparently a pain to make, but everything worth it is a pain to make, right? Of course there were my rolls and AG’s sweet potato buttery goodness with chestnuts. Green beans a la Elizabeth, Bristol Farms cranberry sauce, and creamed spinach to round out the table. Then we took a break, opened some presents and then it was onto dessert. AG made a pumpkin pie, and homemade cookies (which Elizabeth decorated) and then we had egg nog and my Zuppa Inglese. The Zuppa was O.K. With the eggnog it was just too much custardy alcohol. Oh well, you never know you don’t like something until you try it. Now when is someone going to invite me over for Chanukah? I can rock some latkes and noodle kugel with the best of them!



My parents are too fricking cute!

Thanksgiving

Alessandra getting the stuffing out of the turkey. I put it in cheesecloth to make removal easier. Pure genius. Wish I thought of it, but I think I stole the idea from Yahoo food.




Me making rolls. From scratch. With yeast and everything. ;-)




The beautiful bad boy all trussed up




The Perogi (Russian meat dumplings) that Alessandra made, with my beautiful finished rolls




Daddy making cappuccinos. He's the master. Mmmm and then we added Frangelico. MMMMM.





Me, Josh & Eric (Navy boys). The first time we cooked for Josh he said, "I need to marry me an Italian girl." So cute. He's our adopted little brother. He even takes out the trash when I ask! And Eric helped me a lot with the turkey, it was damn heavy with the roasting pan and everything.




Alessandra rocking out to my ghetto culo shaker music, making spinach dip.




Okay, so my parents opened a restaurant in Riverside a few months ago, called Trilussa. As a result, this year my mom announced that if my sister and I wanted Thanksgiving, we were going to have to do it ourselves. She’s too busy. Luckily for the fam we are culinary masterminds. We had 12 people over for the best Thanksgiving of their lives. I'm not exaggerating. I’m not just tooting my own horn. The only snafu of the evening was now Alessandra and I have to do Thanksgiving every year. Not exactly conductive to studying for finals, but the food was damn good. What did we make? Read on.

I put Alessandra on appetizer and mashed potato duty (her mashed potatoes are always amazing, this year they were garlic mashed Yukon Golds MMMM). She made homemade Perogi, which took FOREVER but were sooo good. I ate almost all the leftovers. They make a great breakfast actually! She also made low fat spinach dip, that actually tasted good. Then she made sautéed herbed shrimp. Everything was FABULOUS. She got all recipes from the new Joy of Cooking. Ever since I failed at the JOC's apple pie recipe I have been skeptical of it, but apparently the new edition is fab.

For the piece-de-resistance, I ordered a Williams-Sonoma organic free range 20 lb. turkey. It comes via FedEx! So cool! I brined it with my famous turkey brine recipe which I forced on my mom a couple of years ago (I am willing to share it). Since then it has become the family recipe. If you've never brined a turkey, you don't know what you're missing. It seems like soaking a turkey in a salty apple cider bath would make it taste weird and salty. But it doesn't. It just tastes like delicious tender goodness. Plus the fact that I ordered a fancy expensive turkey also helped with the tenderness and flavor factors.

For the stuffing, I found this great recipe for sausage apricot cornbread stuffing. I actually used Stove Top (and admitted it to everyone) and it was still amazing. I have no idea why. I guess Cooking Light just has the best recipes ever. ;-)

Then I made homemade rolls. I found this recipe last year. They turn out buttery and flaky, sort of like less-greasy croissants. You have to cut the dough and stack it to make little "fans." And I have a weakness for anything with poppy seeds. The very first thing I ever baked was a loaf of challah in 3rd grade. It wasn't very good, but ever since then I've had a fondness for baking bread. It smells really good, and kneading the dough is a positive non-destructive way of getting out aggression. I think bread making should be part of anger management programs.

Every year my Auntie Gay makes this sweet potato chestnut dish. It's sooooo good. So I requested that she bring it this year. It's got gobs of butter and brown sugar, but that's why it tastes so good. ;-) Auntie Gay also brought cranberry sauce from Bristol Farms, it had whole cranberries in it and was great, sweet and tart all at once. One year she made homemade cranberry sauce herself, but she said it was a pain. This was much better than the stuff in a can (obviously).

For dessert, I made my famous homemade apple pie. I have been perfecting the recipe for 10 years, and finally succeeded last year. I have always been a dessert maker. I think it's because my mom never bought junk food when we were kids. If I wanted a cookie I had to make it my damn self. Luckily, I was able to replicate my success this year. ;-) The key is in prepping it in a food processor and refrigerating it overnight. Auntie Gay brought pumpkin pie which I did not try because I hate pumpkin pie. To top off the evening, Daddy made cappuccinos for everybody with sambuca, grappa, or frangelico. Guess which I picked? ;-) Of course Daddy made sure we were well stocked with delicious wines, Amarone, La Roncaia Eclisse, some super tuscan I have since forgotten the name of, and Taurasi Villa Raiano.

NYC Edition

Day 1: So last weekend I went to NYC to visit my cousin Robby and my friend since Jr. High, Jezra. It was a culinary whirlwind! My first night there, I had a hankering for Thai, so Robby took me to this cute place in his neighborhood in the village. We had fresh spring rolls with shrimp and chicken, a little heavy on the lettuce, but the peanut sauce made it worth it. Mmm. And I got green curry since they didn't have yellow (is yellow Thai curry a west coast thing???) and Robby got the Pad Thai. The Pad Thai was made with flat rice noodles (sort of an Asian linguine) which works better than the vermicelli some places serve it with. No place is as good as Taste of Thai in San Diego though. Mmm.

Day 2: I met Robby at work (near the MOMA and Rockafeller Center) for lunch. We went to this Japanese noodle house, which served all manner of weird Japanese stuff in the noodle dishes. I offered to eat Robby's shrimp heads, since he clearly wasn't into it, but they were kind of chewy from sitting in the ramen, and I usually only eat them fried or sautéed. That's really the only reason why I order sweet shrimp sushi, so I can eat the fried shrimp heads. They're really good. You should try it! I chickened out and got a pork ramen (which I could not even come close to finishing), but Robby's came with all manner of weird stuff. There was this gelatinous ball, which reminded me a little of mochi balls, and hot pink fish cakes. For dinner, we went to this pub place somewhere in the village. We had chicken wings (see pic above) and Jezra and I split a burger. Pretty good for English food. For dessert, had beer. Lots of beer that night. And then some tequila. And then demanded Robby stop at the all night market so I could make eggs and toast at 2 in the morning.

Day 3: Jezra promised me her famous enchiladas and she delivered. :-) They had mushrooms, jalapenos, cheese, onion, cilantro, and zucchini. I almost ate all the vegetables, which is an accomplishment for me. :-) I really only eat them because I know I should. I mean who says, Mmmm what I crave right now is some steamed broccoli? NOBODY. Well, at least not me, and that's who counts, at least here. ;-) I crave cheese, steak, mashed potatoes. I only crave salads that come with bacon and blue cheese. Anyway, I digress. They were really delicious and she made them lickety split. Quite tasty. Then we went to this Lost In Translation style karaoke bar in Koreatown. Surreal to say the least. The Koreatown in NYC is way cooler than the one in LA.

Day 4: Jezra and I actually went for a run. She left me in the dust, as expected. We ran by along the Hudson, it was actually pretty. Well, except for the crap brown color. That evening, we went to Pistici. Jezra said it was her favorite Italian restaurant, so we had to go there. Now, I am always wary of people who tell me they want to eat Italian food. I am spoiled. My dad only takes me to the expensive places. Cheap Chinese food? I'm in. Cheap Italian? BARF. But, I was feeling especially trusting after the enchiladas, so we went. O.M.G. I can't believe how good it was. We started out with the Insalata Caprese (which I'm also wary of, they SAY it's mozzrella di buffala, but it never is). WOW. It really was mozzarella di buffala, from the buffalo! I felt like I had taken a plane straight to Campagna. Mmm. (That's where the best mozzarella di buffala comes from). After you have buffalo mozzarella, the cow's kind has no flavor AT ALL. So score 1 for Pastici. AND the olive oil was really extra virgin. (Like I can't tell the difference? So many restaurants LIE about this. Including the one I used to work at. SHHH don't tell!!!!) I had the house meatballs over polenta. I have a weak spot for homemade meatballs. It's so not really Italian, but they are SOOOO good. And these ones were no exception. Plus, I liked the fact it was served with polenta and not pasta. In the north of Italy, polenta used to be more popular than pasta. I LOVE polenta. But really, the stuff they serve in restaurants (outside of Italy) is so premade and weird. I want the fresh gloopy stuff! So this polenta was pretty good coming from and American restaurant. But mine is better. ;-) Robby ordered the homemade fettuccine with mushrooms and herbs, but he couldn't be talked into adding the truffle oil. I'm sure with the truffle oil it would have been extra fabulous, but alas not everyone's palate can handle the explosion of taste that is the truffle. (I'm talking about the fungus not the chocolates people... in case anyone was confused.) But the pasta was good and homemade, and the mushrooms were fresh. The sauce was a little boring and sparse. It needed salt or something, or maybe a dash of mushroom stock. Jezra got the prosciutto and spinach pasta which was very simple but quite good. THEN we had dessert. We got the Frangelico chocolate mouse, which was delicious. Frangelico is probably one of my favorite liqueurs, and it was the perfect flavor accompaniment to the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate mousse. We also had the tiramisu, which was passably good. Nobody makes it like Mario from the Rex. ;-) So all in all, it was the perfect meal on my last night.

I miss you NYC! And Jezra and Robby too. :-) Luckily, they are both coming home to LA for Chrismakkah. P.S. Robby is much more attractive in real life, he just looks ridiculous in all photographs. And he's single ladies!!!

Dinner With Chef Sidoe

A couple of months ago I was at a friend's wedding, and I sat next to Sidoe, who I know through mutual friends. Now, she is a chef, so this got me wondering if our powers combined we could do a wine dinner for our friends. (She'd be doing the cooking.) This is the result of our effort:

We started off with champagne, the Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millenaires 1995 -- Rated 95 by the Wine Spectator. AMAZING. And I don't even like champagne (and yes, I've tried the best). The bubbles just popped on your tongue. The finish was dry and crisp, and didn't leave a funky aftertaste. I wish I would have had a man and some strawberries to share it with. We had planned to serve it with some palate-cleansing mint lime sorbet, but the ice cream maker was not cooperating. (Of course Sidoe was making it herself!) The picture (albeit blurry) is of me holding this fabulous champagne.

The first course was a delicious mild cheese, served with a dab of fig jam. I can't recall the name of the cheese (I think it was a type of gouda), but it was delicious. It was firmer than a cheddar, a little salty, and very tasty. Definitely cow's milk. Paired with the fig jam, the salty creaminess of the cheese really stood out, and the jam was not oversweet. We paired that with the Antinori Cervaro Chardonnay, one of my favorites. It has a hint of vanilla, goes great with food. It's bold enough to stand up to a Cakebread Chardonnay, but without the overpowering fruit and oak.

The second course was homemade pesto (some of the best pesto I've had, and that's saying a lot) topped crostini (slices of baguette which have been toasted with a brush of olive oil), with sundried tomatoes and Chevre goat cheese. We paired this with an Antinori Tenute Marchese Chianti Classico Riserva. This is a very classic chianti (hence the name, LOL... actually Classico means it comes from the Classico region of Chianti, the best part). Full bodied, with red berry fruit flavors, not too much tannin, and a dry finish.

The third course was my favorite, Saga blue cheese (from Denmark) stuffed dates, baked and wrapped in uncured applewood smoked bacon. This was heaven in a bite. The salty/sweet combination was perfect! We also paired this with one of my favorite wines, Masi Amarone. We decanted the wine about an hour ahead of time, so it was perfect to drink right away. Amarone comes from the Veneto region of Italy (where my dad is from). The unique thing about this wine is they dry the Valpolicella grapes on mats (so basically they are raisins) before they press them. This gives a heightened sweetness and alcohol content to the wine. Yet, it's big and bold all at the same time. Goes great with steak. Or these little divine bacon date things. Mmm....

And last, but not least, the main course. Thin sliced medium rare NY steak. The BOMB. Sidoe made this delicious demiglace sauce with some of the wine. The steak was paired with sauteed vegetables and a mushroom rice pilaf. I have always loved NY steak. When I was a kid at my dad's restaurant, I always ordered it, since I was born in NYC and I thought I should support my peeps. It must have been really funny to watch an 8 year old girl polish off a whole NY once a week. We paired this bad boy with a Val di Suga Brunello. Brunello is one of the best wines that Italy produces (aside from the recent Super Tuscans). Rich, bold, clean, with only a hint of dark fruit, sometimes blackberry or blueberry. With the steak it was just AWESOME. Of course by this time, our palates were pretty shot, since we were on bottle #5, so we didn't fully appreciate it. But still.

I hate to admit it, but we finished off the night with a couple of bottles of Charles Shaw. (Ah, even I cringe as I write!) The thing is, none of us were driving, so we figured, why not? And we couldn't really taste it anyway. Thanks to all my girls for making this one of the best girl's nights ever!

Roy's

There was a Roy's Hawaiian in La Jolla when I used to live there. I heard it wasn't that good, so I never went there. Then, my friend's sister and her husband went to Hawaii for their honeymoon. They went to Roy's and raved about it, especially the Ahi Poke. But I was still not convinced enough to go the one in La Jolla. However, I work down the street from the Roy's in Downtown LA (on Figueroa), and so does my attorney uncle. So when he offered to treat me to lunch at Roy's, I jumped at the chance. (The picture at right is one of the selections available, which I personally have not tried.)

As you enter the restaurant, about 5 people say Aloha to you. This might be cute in Hawaii (and I wouldn't know since I've never been), but in LA it's downright annoying. But at least they have made the most with the small space, with a "tropical" decor (bamboo and weird flowers). And we got a kind of crappy table by the kitchen. But I digress. The food should be the centerpiece, no?

The menu changes all the time (so our server claimed) and they have a large variety of fresh fish. I ordered the bento box so I could get a nice sampling of what they had to offer. The first thing I tried was the Ahi Poke, since my friends raved about it. It's fresh diced Ahi, marinated in some yummy soy sauce wasabi mixture, crunchy smelt roe, and avocado (which came in big chunks so it was easy for me to pick out) :-). It was sooo good. The fish was so fresh, and the silky smoothness of the tuna was a great complement to the tangy sauce and crunchy smelt roe. Roy’s calls the smelt roe “Tobiko Caviar,” which is probably Hawaiian fancy schmancy for smelt roe. Let’s call a fish egg a fish egg people.

The next thing I tried was some mild whitefish (probably sea bass) in a weird sauce. It was purple-black and light. It was too light to be pureed black beans, and it didn’t have a lot of flavor. The fish was fresh, but it was so mild and the sauce didn’t have a lot of flavor. So I didn’t even finish it.

The third compartment had a delicious Chinese chicken salad. The chicken was lightly breaded and crispy, and the salad was really like an Asian cabbage slaw in a tangy dressing. Very tasty!

And last but not least, the charbroiled and braised short ribs. WOW. They sure know how to make their piggies taste good in Hawaii!!! The meat was marinated in a yummy teriyaki like mixture, and just FELL OFF THE BONE. MMMM. And my big complaint with ribs is that they are too fatty, but these were perfect, meaty, hearty, and sweet and sour all at once. I’m never going to Tony Roma’s again!

Kabuki Sushi

Wow, this has to be the best kept sushi secret in Los Angeles. Every day, they offer half-off sushi and rolls. The only catch is that if you're eating at dinner, each person has to order 3 things (for lunch it's only 2). So my friend and I ordered 3 rolls and 3 nigiri sushi to share. All this plus a large Sapporo (which was $6.95) brought our bill to about $27. So we spent $10 each on really yummy sushi. A good deal to say the least. There are several locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and we went to the one in Old Pasadena on Colorado.

Now, I know you're going to be kind of skeptical. I mean, if it's half-off, is it still GOOD? Yes, yes it is.

They start you off with free edamame, which were adequately salted, and kept us nibbling before our sushi arrived. And let's face it, nibbling on edamame is much better than wolfing down three pieces of bread with butter.

Then, the sushi came. We ordered three nigiri sushi: albacore, maguro (tuna), and shrimp. The albacore was amazing. It came with this ponzu dipping sauce which made it extra tasty, but the quality of the fish was excellent. It was perfectly seared on one side, and the fish was flaky and melted in our mouths. The maguro was also excellent. It wasn't previously frozen (you can tell from the texture and color) and also was a generous portion of flaky melty goodness. The shrimp was crap, but what do you expect? Shrimp is always frozen, and it's cooked. (Other than sweet shrimp sushi which is just seared, but still raw in the middle. And often comes with fried shrimp heads. Mmm. Crispy.) In retrospect we should have ordered something else. Oh well.

The rolls we ordered were spicy tuna, philadelphia, and shrimp. The spicy tuna was AWESOME. Now, I personally can't handle a whole lot of spice and heat, so this was just right. (I suppose die hards will expect a more spicy roll, but I could not handle it.) It was spicy with a mild heat, just enough to be tasty without overpowering the actual flavor of the roll. I also liked the phildelphia. Something about the texture of the cream chesse with the fresh fish just makes an excellent combination in the mouth. And I don't even like salmon. :-) The shrimp roll was okay. It had thinly sliced cucumber, which added a nice coolness and crunch, but the shrimp just wasn't that good.

The only catch of this great deal is you have to order a minimum amount of sushi, and your choices are limited. The menu has some very interesting rolls on it, but they are not included in the half-off deal. (For example, the lotus roll has baked baby lobster on top of a california roll with eel sauce.) One of these days when I'm flush with cash, I might try one of those full-priced rolls. But, I'll probably just order more albacore. :-)

Valentino Las Vegas

Older review:

Okay, so last weekend I went to Vegas with my sister. It was awesome. We flew and stayed at the Luxor for $200 pp. :-) The best part though, was my Dad gave me the thumbs up to use the Amex at Valentino to treat ourselves to a delicious dinner sans parents. I was super excited to go, bc my parents said the food was even better than the Valentino in Santa Monica (as if that's even possible), and the chef won a James Beard Award. So, it was a bit of an adventure getting there. I thought it was at the Bellagio (all those WOP names sound the same) but it was in fact at the Venetian. So we had to huff it, and Sis was in hot shoes (I of course, was not) so her feet were on fire, and we were late, and apparently Daddy didn't make the reservation. Whatev, it was Monday night (albeit Memorial Day) and there was plenty of room. Now, I saved the menu (okay, STOLE the menu) but now I can't find it, so you'll all have to rely on my memory of this delicious meal.

It was surreal actually looking at the menu, since I've never seen one (Piero, the owner, just brings out lots of plates). Sis and I decided to get the tasting menu that didn't have escargot (gross!) and fois gras (Sis likes it, but I don't think it's worth the calories).

So, first course was 3 tastes of appetizers. One was this shrimp on top of shredded marinated asparagus. Ohmigod. It was the perfect shrimp. The outside was crispy, but the inside was plump and juicy. Then there was duck, which was OK, but Sis didn't like it. It had some demiglace sauce. Then there was a lobster morsel on some beet salad. Ohhhh... this lobster was tender succulent juciness. I wish I got to eat the whole thing, not just a morsel.

Next was pasta course. Sis liked this course the best. There was a lobster cannelloni. The filling was good, but the stripped (black and white fresh pasta) outer wrapping was a little too firm. Then there was fresh garganelli (weird homemade pasta things) with a fresh tomato sauce, and some delicious cheese which I can't remember the name of. Must have been French. ;-) Then, we had the best gnocchi EVER. (Even better than Trilussa back in the day). It was stuffed with quail sausage, and was AMAZING. Sis doesn't even dig sausage and she was slobbering over it. I love sausage, and I love gnocchi done right, so this was perfect. The gnocchi was tender, the sausage juicy... MMMM.

Then, the meat course. There was this nasy kobe beef roll with pinenuts and pancetta. It was gross. The kobe beef was tough and stringy, and kind of looked like shaved roast beef. The pancetta was overcooked, and with the pinenuts it was just gross. (And kobe is normally AMAZING!) But then there was this piece of pork in a simple demiglace, and I don't know what part of the pig this little slice of heaven came from, but it was delish. Kind of fatty, but tender, juicy, and flavorful. Then, we had the most delicious piece of squab I have ever had. In fact, it was one of the best peices of meat I've ever had (almost as good as the kobe beef I had at Rocca delle Macie in 96). The squab just melted in my mouth, and had the outside was perfectly seared so it was crispy but retained all the juices. It was topped with fois gras, and Sis refuses to eat squab, because it's really pigeon (and as I was eating mine, she was making cooing noises. Quite amusing acutally. It did not deter me from my pigeon feast. I told her if sewer rat tasted like lobster I'd eat it too.) So we did a little trade, squab for fois gras. I think I got the better deal. She of course made me take a bite of the fois gras. It just tasted like pureed liver. Oh yeah, that's what it is. And for $100 and 1000 calories, it's NOT WORTH IT. And don't you feel bad for the little force-fed goosies? Nah, me neither.

On to dessert. MMMM. I am a big dessert person. Unfortunately most places don't have a pastry chef, and just order their stuff from Bindi. Just bc something has a lot of sugar and fat in it doesn't mean it tastes good. Okay, it tastes GOOD, but it could be amazing with just a little more effort. So I love dessert, but I'm picky. I'm also a bit of a baker myself, so I am entitled to a bit of snobbery. So I was not dissappointed when we got our dessert course. There was this praline semifreddo croccante (which frankly I think was hazlenut, but whatev) which was amazing. It was ice-cream esque, flavorful, creamy without being too rich, crunchy... mmmm. Then there was this orange muffin thing which was kind of weird, but it rocked when I dipped it in some vanilla sauce. Then there was this panna cotta. O. M. G. I love panna cotta. (It's sort of like a custard, but it's made with gelatin so it's not as high in fat). Mmm.... it had shaved vanilla particles, and it was CREAMY, and cool melty goodness in my mouth. Then there was pricky pear sorbet (wtf?) which was good, but I'm not into sorbet. Not caloric enough probably.
Then I finished off our bottle of Masi Campofiorin, and proceeded to make bank playing Pai Gao.

LOL, there was this old white dude sitting next to me at the table, who said to me, "I think Pai Gao means screwed in Japanese." I said, "it's Chinese, asshole." Okay, I didn't call him an asshole. But still.