Sunday, October 10, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A is for apple
A few words that I reviewed last night in the LG book..
Abondance - a cheese from France in the Savoie region..
Abattoir - A one who will process a whole animal for you, meat, offal, skin, etc...
Abondance - a cheese from France in the Savoie region..
Abattoir - A one who will process a whole animal for you, meat, offal, skin, etc...
Not of my own accord
So it's all his fault.. damn the Gordon Ramsey and his cooking shows that get me all riled up and what not...
I missed the Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef shows this week but I'll need to watch them later on this week. I have not really gone anywhere new.. aside from a very mediocre Japanese place near the house... Really Japanese food in has gone to crap where I live... no good sushi places... I have to drive a fair amount to get some good ramen... but just down the street I can get Korean or Vietnamese... even Thai...
I'll need to put together the review for this place some time soon... before I purposely forget about it.. OOHH how could I forget I had awesome Indian a few weeks ago.. that I will review about soon...
So anyway... I'm on a mission.. one I no doubt will drop after a month or so... just like this blog..
I'm going to go through a few cookbooks in the coming year... in attempts to get on some freaking cooking show... My Larousse Gastronomique Encyclopedia and the CIA book plus a techniques book from Jacques Pepin..
No more excuses.. I'm going to pace myself.. I need to freaking do this!!!!!
I missed the Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef shows this week but I'll need to watch them later on this week. I have not really gone anywhere new.. aside from a very mediocre Japanese place near the house... Really Japanese food in has gone to crap where I live... no good sushi places... I have to drive a fair amount to get some good ramen... but just down the street I can get Korean or Vietnamese... even Thai...
I'll need to put together the review for this place some time soon... before I purposely forget about it.. OOHH how could I forget I had awesome Indian a few weeks ago.. that I will review about soon...
So anyway... I'm on a mission.. one I no doubt will drop after a month or so... just like this blog..
I'm going to go through a few cookbooks in the coming year... in attempts to get on some freaking cooking show... My Larousse Gastronomique Encyclopedia and the CIA book plus a techniques book from Jacques Pepin..
No more excuses.. I'm going to pace myself.. I need to freaking do this!!!!!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Yelp Sucks!! Sort of...
So out of nowhere I got hankerin' for some hot wings and a beer. Mmmmm tasty spicy vinegary goodness washed down with a nice pilsner. The only question was where would I want to go should I need to fulfill this craving.
For me my favorite place is Hooters, they have some awesome wings. Service isn't all that great but I like the food there. They also have a decent seafood sampler platter. Second is Buffalo Wing's n Things in Huntington Beach, though I haven't been here in well over 5 years. So I was trying to think of what other options are available to me. This brings me to Yelp.
On a normal given day they are about 80%-90% on the money with suggestions and ideas of culinary exploration. Though today I'm reminded yet again at how lame they are on occasion. So I do a search for hot wings and I'm hoping I get places that specialize in this item, though I get all these places that are not really related but because they offer it on the menu and someone decides to comment about how they did or did not have them. Really blows!
Now some of the places mentioned I wouldn't even consider getting hot wings at them... um.. the Boiling Crab is awesome for Louisiana style peel n eat shrimp and crab and what not.. but hot wings?? um.. no thanks!!
So if there is a specific culinary food item your looking for I would not recommend Yelp... perhaps Chowhound though... it's a little more of a forums board but at least it's more relevant.
Speaking of which I've still yet to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingnuts.
For me my favorite place is Hooters, they have some awesome wings. Service isn't all that great but I like the food there. They also have a decent seafood sampler platter. Second is Buffalo Wing's n Things in Huntington Beach, though I haven't been here in well over 5 years. So I was trying to think of what other options are available to me. This brings me to Yelp.
On a normal given day they are about 80%-90% on the money with suggestions and ideas of culinary exploration. Though today I'm reminded yet again at how lame they are on occasion. So I do a search for hot wings and I'm hoping I get places that specialize in this item, though I get all these places that are not really related but because they offer it on the menu and someone decides to comment about how they did or did not have them. Really blows!
Now some of the places mentioned I wouldn't even consider getting hot wings at them... um.. the Boiling Crab is awesome for Louisiana style peel n eat shrimp and crab and what not.. but hot wings?? um.. no thanks!!
So if there is a specific culinary food item your looking for I would not recommend Yelp... perhaps Chowhound though... it's a little more of a forums board but at least it's more relevant.
Speaking of which I've still yet to go to Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingnuts.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
I really think so.....
I love Japanese culture.... possibly due to my Dad being stationed in Japan and related a few stories about being there and also it was the first culture I remember being exposed, at least with some relative regularity. Either Japanese restaurants or going to Little Tokyo in Downtown LA, I was exposed to it. Hence I like the song by the Vapors...
Now as this is supposed to be a blog about food, let me preface this with I still consider myself to be a "food tourista", by this I mean that I'm still relatively new (perhaps I'm being a bit modest here). While a majority of people I have talked to have said - "You should start a blog about food" - I always scoffed at them. Yes I know there is a mini Japanese strip mall in Fountain Valley. Not too mention the ones in the South Bay (Too many to list - Gardena/Torrance) or little stretch on Sawtell in West LA (Between Pico & Santa Monica) or the patch in Costa Mesa.... While I know where these places are.. I still consider myself a tourista.
Just to add to that, I've become enamored with other Asian cultures as well. Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai... (India is in Asia but generally not considered Asian.. how does that work???) as these are what I am close to.
Now after going through that nonsensical rant.... on to what I was going to talk about.
For me food is one of the universal constants.... we all need it. Just like air and water, you really can't survive without food. Look at how many things revolve around food, we have festivals, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduation parties... you get the picture.
We eat throughout the day... we have aisles and aisles of food in the US (which on a personal note I absolutely hate!!!). The point is a good amount of a time is spent eating, so why not enjoy the food.
So there is this About section I get a weekly articleon Japanese food, this week it's....
Mabo don!!
Which for me I like and one of those dishes that you should try if you've never had tofu, but probably already like if you regularly eat tofu. Which by the way I like, but don't eat it as much as I would like to.. but am in no way a vegetarian or vegan.
Yet for me I like the unagi (eel) or sake (salmon) don much better than the teriyaki ones.
Now as this is supposed to be a blog about food, let me preface this with I still consider myself to be a "food tourista", by this I mean that I'm still relatively new (perhaps I'm being a bit modest here). While a majority of people I have talked to have said - "You should start a blog about food" - I always scoffed at them. Yes I know there is a mini Japanese strip mall in Fountain Valley. Not too mention the ones in the South Bay (Too many to list - Gardena/Torrance) or little stretch on Sawtell in West LA (Between Pico & Santa Monica) or the patch in Costa Mesa.... While I know where these places are.. I still consider myself a tourista.
Just to add to that, I've become enamored with other Asian cultures as well. Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai... (India is in Asia but generally not considered Asian.. how does that work???) as these are what I am close to.
Now after going through that nonsensical rant.... on to what I was going to talk about.
For me food is one of the universal constants.... we all need it. Just like air and water, you really can't survive without food. Look at how many things revolve around food, we have festivals, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduation parties... you get the picture.
We eat throughout the day... we have aisles and aisles of food in the US (which on a personal note I absolutely hate!!!). The point is a good amount of a time is spent eating, so why not enjoy the food.
So there is this About section I get a weekly articleon Japanese food, this week it's....
Mabo don!!
Which for me I like and one of those dishes that you should try if you've never had tofu, but probably already like if you regularly eat tofu. Which by the way I like, but don't eat it as much as I would like to.. but am in no way a vegetarian or vegan.
Yet for me I like the unagi (eel) or sake (salmon) don much better than the teriyaki ones.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I missed all of May?!?!?!? Avoid Pink's if you like hot dogs...
If you have the taste buds of a cockroach, you'll probably enjoy Pink's Hot Dogs in Buena Park at Knott's Berry Farm.
Really where do I begin with this place, aside from the customer service, this place is a dismal failure on so many levels. Let's start with building location/layout. The place is too cramped for the amount of traffic that they get. There is one window to order and one window to pick up. It just so happens that they have all the condiments and what not around said pick up window. It really looks like a traffic jam on the 10 East of the 405 at 5PM on a holiday weekend. If you like dealing with rude throngs of people, while waiting for your food then this is your place!!
Did I mention how disgusting this place was?? Now it's not like there was puke on the floor, but I don't think you'd notice if there was. The floors and tables where pretty awful, I've seen cleaner tables at Chuck E. Cheese in Santa Ana.
Now on to the food like substance.... There are a few handful of places that I hold in a special category of crap, these are the ones that deserve a wordy worded letter, which is pretty aweful coming from me. That is the wordy worded letter, my English skills are pretty atrocious.
One, I have to say they have the worst menu on the planet. These jacked up names for hot dogs and the multitude of combination's that top them. Understand that hot dogs should not be confused with the various sausages out there, whether your various wursts, bangers or other ethnic sausages, namely the Polish. Hot dogs are in a class of their own and depending on how they are prepared can usually tell you what part of the country you are from or where you are at as well. Generally a dog should be kosher.. all beef... no by-products or additives, who needs that?! Now you can have them prepared a number of ways but the more popular ways are mustard & onions (or sauerkraut!!), Chicago style (steamed poppy seed bun, onions, pickle wedge, tomato, yellow pepper -- my all time favorite!!). Hot dogs come steamed, grilled, pan fried, wrapped with bacon, battered and deep fried. However, this place apparently is a one trick pony, let's cover up the sub par quality of the dog with sub par quality toppings.
To think that we passed up going to Portillo's.. but alas we did not know. It was the "we've live in California for over 30+ years and never had Pink's!", they are not like the other Ca institutions, In-n-Out, Tommy's, (fill in your Ca only food establishment here). Let just say the initial sign of how crappy the dogs where... the rubber like casing they were in only encased the bland flavorless meat-like substance inside.
While Pink's is not in the category of the Golden Steer and Captain Kidd's and... I know there is another that goes here... anyway... Pink's is just north of the line of crapsville, I know I won't spend a dollar there again, but I'd be willing to sample something else if someone else paid for it.
So to summarize.. if you want a hot dog go to Portillo's.. it's just down the street in fact... about a mile East of Beach Blvd on La Palma before Dale, or go to Wienerschnitzel --- no really I'd rather have gone here compared to Pink's. I have heard of this place called PCH in Orange.. I need to try them out... but avoid Mustard's there is one in Long Beach and one in Los Alamitos/Cypress... they suck as well, what an abomination of a "Chicago style" hot dog they serve there. Though Costco serves a decent dog at a great price... $2.50 for a half pound hot dog/polish sausage and a drink.
At least i was able to get a $5 boysenberry pie from Knott's, my receipt was a coupon.
And lastly they have mediocre onion rings as well, a small basket of rings for $3.50 there were maybe 8 in the small paper tray.
Really where do I begin with this place, aside from the customer service, this place is a dismal failure on so many levels. Let's start with building location/layout. The place is too cramped for the amount of traffic that they get. There is one window to order and one window to pick up. It just so happens that they have all the condiments and what not around said pick up window. It really looks like a traffic jam on the 10 East of the 405 at 5PM on a holiday weekend. If you like dealing with rude throngs of people, while waiting for your food then this is your place!!
Did I mention how disgusting this place was?? Now it's not like there was puke on the floor, but I don't think you'd notice if there was. The floors and tables where pretty awful, I've seen cleaner tables at Chuck E. Cheese in Santa Ana.
Now on to the food like substance.... There are a few handful of places that I hold in a special category of crap, these are the ones that deserve a wordy worded letter, which is pretty aweful coming from me. That is the wordy worded letter, my English skills are pretty atrocious.
One, I have to say they have the worst menu on the planet. These jacked up names for hot dogs and the multitude of combination's that top them. Understand that hot dogs should not be confused with the various sausages out there, whether your various wursts, bangers or other ethnic sausages, namely the Polish. Hot dogs are in a class of their own and depending on how they are prepared can usually tell you what part of the country you are from or where you are at as well. Generally a dog should be kosher.. all beef... no by-products or additives, who needs that?! Now you can have them prepared a number of ways but the more popular ways are mustard & onions (or sauerkraut!!), Chicago style (steamed poppy seed bun, onions, pickle wedge, tomato, yellow pepper -- my all time favorite!!). Hot dogs come steamed, grilled, pan fried, wrapped with bacon, battered and deep fried. However, this place apparently is a one trick pony, let's cover up the sub par quality of the dog with sub par quality toppings.
To think that we passed up going to Portillo's.. but alas we did not know. It was the "we've live in California for over 30+ years and never had Pink's!", they are not like the other Ca institutions, In-n-Out, Tommy's, (fill in your Ca only food establishment here). Let just say the initial sign of how crappy the dogs where... the rubber like casing they were in only encased the bland flavorless meat-like substance inside.
While Pink's is not in the category of the Golden Steer and Captain Kidd's and... I know there is another that goes here... anyway... Pink's is just north of the line of crapsville, I know I won't spend a dollar there again, but I'd be willing to sample something else if someone else paid for it.
So to summarize.. if you want a hot dog go to Portillo's.. it's just down the street in fact... about a mile East of Beach Blvd on La Palma before Dale, or go to Wienerschnitzel --- no really I'd rather have gone here compared to Pink's. I have heard of this place called PCH in Orange.. I need to try them out... but avoid Mustard's there is one in Long Beach and one in Los Alamitos/Cypress... they suck as well, what an abomination of a "Chicago style" hot dog they serve there. Though Costco serves a decent dog at a great price... $2.50 for a half pound hot dog/polish sausage and a drink.
At least i was able to get a $5 boysenberry pie from Knott's, my receipt was a coupon.
And lastly they have mediocre onion rings as well, a small basket of rings for $3.50 there were maybe 8 in the small paper tray.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Hong Kong Phooey
So in case you haven't heard me say it enough already.. I love Asian food..
I don't think there is a better regional cuisine than Asian.. Really from Indian to Japanese to Korean to Chinese to Thai... and I've only just started. Phillipino (debatable if it's Asian as I've read in some places) is one that I've just started to explore and aside from lumpia (a type of egg roll), one that needs further investigation. Though just like my venture into Sri Lankan a few weeks back I don't know really where to start.
Check out the Food Frenzy blog.. good times..
Monday, April 26, 2010
mmmm..... Bacon & The Art of Gorging Oneself.
It'd been a while.. years in fact that i can think of eating oneself silly.. or to the point that I slept horribly and needed antacid's.
The past Friday we went to Incheonwon Korean BBQ in Garden Grove. Oh my gosh.. this place rocks...
I need to Yelp a review for this place but basically here is the low down. It's a bit spendy!! Especially on the hard liquor and wine. We went with the cheaper AYCE (All You Can Eat) @ $17 per person. They have a large menu of options in case your not feeling BBQ as well, but I was single minded on this and this alone.
Damn they give you a lot of food.. and for only 3 of us.. well 4 but apparently there was a communication issue about the $$ of this place. So when at the last moment when yet again Scratchy decides he'll eat to which Spam starves..
Oh my gosh is the food good here... It was the first time in a long time that I got to take the twins to K-BBQ... I think at least 4 or 5 years..
Again to give you an idea on the price of drinks... beers are about $6.. Wine is about $12, mostly being rice or other Asian fruit wines (raspberry/plum). Whiskey, Hennessey and the like are about $10 a pop.
The amount of food we got we barely dented... at least 2 more people could have been there and i think we'd still have left overs...
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
So haven't been to the Wiliams Sonoma classes since the end of March.. the healthy cooking classes don't seem to have the same appeal... Though I managed to make a few dishes this weekend... Chili con carne and Bacon Wrapped Scallops.
The chili was straight up... Meat, seasoning, garlic, onions and tomatoes.. that's pretty much about it.. I found it pretty bland actually.. well maybe bland is not the right term.. I would said one dimensional... there was something missing on it.. aside from salt... I'd been wanting just plain meat chili for a while but perhaps that was it.. maybe it needed beans.. or some green chili or green pepper.. It's hard though I'm all about making it that way but i ask people more often than not about what they want in it... People liked it.. I didn't.. I'd like to make a different one next time.. the way I want it.. maybe add some cornmeal to it.. it lacked depth.. green peppers.. small chunks of stew meat.. slow cook it longer..
Sunday involved two things I'd never done... Scallops and aioli...
Specifically bacon wrapped scallops with aioli...
Scallops... hhmm.. I'm finding that I'm having a indifferent attitude towards them... they are slowly slipping from my personal menu of enjoyable seafood items.. Don't get me wrong.. I personally think they are a excellent choice for those new to seafood.. tender, sweet and mild... just that I didn't really enjoy these ones... though again apparently I was cooking for everyone else but myself this weekend.. they all liked them..
Aioli... I'm confused on this crap... After a bit of research this morning I apparently made aioli as it should be.. it's a garlic mayo... yeah not so much of a fan of it.. which leads me to believe that I didn't make it correctly... I think it may have been too much lemon juice.. this is one of those things that irritates me about cooking at home... How do you know if it right or not?? Namely I have a list of sauces that I need to go through... but how do you now if it's the correct taste?
Oh well... The lotto is fast approaching 200 Mil... I still plan on going to cooking school... among learning how to fly plane/helicopter, pilot a boat and a master at least 2 languages..
Should I win!
The past Friday we went to Incheonwon Korean BBQ in Garden Grove. Oh my gosh.. this place rocks...
I need to Yelp a review for this place but basically here is the low down. It's a bit spendy!! Especially on the hard liquor and wine. We went with the cheaper AYCE (All You Can Eat) @ $17 per person. They have a large menu of options in case your not feeling BBQ as well, but I was single minded on this and this alone.
Damn they give you a lot of food.. and for only 3 of us.. well 4 but apparently there was a communication issue about the $$ of this place. So when at the last moment when yet again Scratchy decides he'll eat to which Spam starves..
Oh my gosh is the food good here... It was the first time in a long time that I got to take the twins to K-BBQ... I think at least 4 or 5 years..
Again to give you an idea on the price of drinks... beers are about $6.. Wine is about $12, mostly being rice or other Asian fruit wines (raspberry/plum). Whiskey, Hennessey and the like are about $10 a pop.
The amount of food we got we barely dented... at least 2 more people could have been there and i think we'd still have left overs...
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
So haven't been to the Wiliams Sonoma classes since the end of March.. the healthy cooking classes don't seem to have the same appeal... Though I managed to make a few dishes this weekend... Chili con carne and Bacon Wrapped Scallops.
The chili was straight up... Meat, seasoning, garlic, onions and tomatoes.. that's pretty much about it.. I found it pretty bland actually.. well maybe bland is not the right term.. I would said one dimensional... there was something missing on it.. aside from salt... I'd been wanting just plain meat chili for a while but perhaps that was it.. maybe it needed beans.. or some green chili or green pepper.. It's hard though I'm all about making it that way but i ask people more often than not about what they want in it... People liked it.. I didn't.. I'd like to make a different one next time.. the way I want it.. maybe add some cornmeal to it.. it lacked depth.. green peppers.. small chunks of stew meat.. slow cook it longer..
Sunday involved two things I'd never done... Scallops and aioli...
Specifically bacon wrapped scallops with aioli...
Scallops... hhmm.. I'm finding that I'm having a indifferent attitude towards them... they are slowly slipping from my personal menu of enjoyable seafood items.. Don't get me wrong.. I personally think they are a excellent choice for those new to seafood.. tender, sweet and mild... just that I didn't really enjoy these ones... though again apparently I was cooking for everyone else but myself this weekend.. they all liked them..
Aioli... I'm confused on this crap... After a bit of research this morning I apparently made aioli as it should be.. it's a garlic mayo... yeah not so much of a fan of it.. which leads me to believe that I didn't make it correctly... I think it may have been too much lemon juice.. this is one of those things that irritates me about cooking at home... How do you know if it right or not?? Namely I have a list of sauces that I need to go through... but how do you now if it's the correct taste?
Oh well... The lotto is fast approaching 200 Mil... I still plan on going to cooking school... among learning how to fly plane/helicopter, pilot a boat and a master at least 2 languages..
Should I win!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Mac n Cheese for Adults
Mac n Cheese.. for adults!
So this past weekend I made some adult variety mac n cheese. I must say that for me MnC is usually the blue box. Highly processed crap... I don't know.. maybe there is crack in it. Well this past weekend I made some potentially high "adult" mac n cheese. I think that is why i went down this route, it was not the typical MnC,it was different. Though I don't like the recipe as I got it. The roux base is way off, initially calling for 7 tbs of butter and 3/4 cp of flour... yeah needless to say this was the worst thing about it. Also I swapped the cheese out, Trader Joe's carries a 4 cheese Italian blend that I went with instead of the parmesean it asked for. Overall I liked it a lot, there is a huge amount of potential in this dish.
So the basically it called for the following..
1 lb of macaroni
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 milk
4 oz cheese (Parmesean is on the recipe I swapped this with the Quattro Formaggi from Trader Joes)
3/4 cp flour (I'd change this to 7 tbs of flour as it should be 1:1 ratio on flour & butter)
7 tbs of butter
1/2 tsp each of the following:
Salt
Pepper
Old Bay Seasoning (or eyeball the following - 1/4 tsp celery salt, 1/8 paprika & red pepper (not 1 each but 1/8 tsp total) I found Old Bay to be a bit of a luxury item considering it contains celery salt, black pepper, red pepper and paprika - in that order on the container.)
3/4 cp MINCED onion - Minced I said!
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
Boil up the macaroni to al dente, should be about 8 minutes. Follow the directions and go with the first number if you have a range i.e. 8-10 minutes, go with 8 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the pasta from cooking any further and set aside.
So you make the roux by melting the butter on med heat in a medium sized pot, then slowly whisk in the flour which should be a bit on the pastey side. We are looking for a light golden color, just before caramel. Then add the dry ingredients and then the milk & cream, then combine these in a casserole dish and cook for about 20 - 30 minutes until you get a slight golden crust.
Now this is a slightly modified version of what I had, notations made where I changed it.
So this past weekend I made some adult variety mac n cheese. I must say that for me MnC is usually the blue box. Highly processed crap... I don't know.. maybe there is crack in it. Well this past weekend I made some potentially high "adult" mac n cheese. I think that is why i went down this route, it was not the typical MnC,it was different. Though I don't like the recipe as I got it. The roux base is way off, initially calling for 7 tbs of butter and 3/4 cp of flour... yeah needless to say this was the worst thing about it. Also I swapped the cheese out, Trader Joe's carries a 4 cheese Italian blend that I went with instead of the parmesean it asked for. Overall I liked it a lot, there is a huge amount of potential in this dish.
So the basically it called for the following..
1 lb of macaroni
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 milk
4 oz cheese (Parmesean is on the recipe I swapped this with the Quattro Formaggi from Trader Joes)
3/4 cp flour (I'd change this to 7 tbs of flour as it should be 1:1 ratio on flour & butter)
7 tbs of butter
1/2 tsp each of the following:
Salt
Pepper
Old Bay Seasoning (or eyeball the following - 1/4 tsp celery salt, 1/8 paprika & red pepper (not 1 each but 1/8 tsp total) I found Old Bay to be a bit of a luxury item considering it contains celery salt, black pepper, red pepper and paprika - in that order on the container.)
3/4 cp MINCED onion - Minced I said!
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
Boil up the macaroni to al dente, should be about 8 minutes. Follow the directions and go with the first number if you have a range i.e. 8-10 minutes, go with 8 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the pasta from cooking any further and set aside.
So you make the roux by melting the butter on med heat in a medium sized pot, then slowly whisk in the flour which should be a bit on the pastey side. We are looking for a light golden color, just before caramel. Then add the dry ingredients and then the milk & cream, then combine these in a casserole dish and cook for about 20 - 30 minutes until you get a slight golden crust.
Now this is a slightly modified version of what I had, notations made where I changed it.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Review - Georges - Huntington Beach
I eat bad Mexican food so you don't have to...
I grew up down the street (Edwards & McFadden) of Georges (Edwards & Edinger) which I think was there when I moved to HB as a kid in the late 70's. I've been here 3 times I think, once when I didn't know any better, once because I was with people who didn't know any better, and once because I forgot I didn't know better.
Check out my review on Yelp.
I grew up down the street (Edwards & McFadden) of Georges (Edwards & Edinger) which I think was there when I moved to HB as a kid in the late 70's. I've been here 3 times I think, once when I didn't know any better, once because I was with people who didn't know any better, and once because I forgot I didn't know better.
Check out my review on Yelp.
Review - Wadiya - Anaheim
Check out my Yelp review for this Sri Lankan place in Anaheim, Wadiya.
DO NOT GO TO THE WEBSITE FOR WADIYA - GOOGLE SAYS IT HAS MALWARE ON IT.
It's a second chance kind of place, the food has me interested but not like OMFG this is amazing. Order off the menu and not the buffet. I think the menu food is better, buffet is ok.
DO NOT GO TO THE WEBSITE FOR WADIYA - GOOGLE SAYS IT HAS MALWARE ON IT.
It's a second chance kind of place, the food has me interested but not like OMFG this is amazing. Order off the menu and not the buffet. I think the menu food is better, buffet is ok.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Slacker and my punishment is bad food!
It has been a while since I've written anything here. My focus has been towards other various writing endeavors. Plus I haven't cooked or gone anywhere of worth recently that I can think of... no new recipes... though this morning I realized that I love and loath home cooking...
The best part of cooking at home is that your well cooking at home... I guess. There are a number of reasons as to why you enjoy it, costs, watching the ingredients, you just like to cook or whatever. For me it's the satisfaction of creating something, however there is usually something missing vs say going out to eat, namely the full range of options. Sure I can make a dish or two of Indian food though I don't always have the other items. Usually it's Naan and rice, but it's not like these are difficult items to procure. Trader Joes offers 2 frozen varieties of Naan, plain & garlic. Though in my pursuit of all things authentic I've traveled to Little Indian on occasion and found that you can get the same items here, plus more! What if you wanted a paratha or a kulcha or a roti? If you happen to know of a near by Indian market you can find these items, which by the way are a bread item in case you didn't know. For me it is single handedly the most dangerous cuisine in the world! Here you have a delicious Lamb Vindaloo what do you do with all of this leftover sauce sitting here... that's where these flatbread items come into play. Paratha's... yummy flakey croissant like flat bread. Naan, nothing compares to fresh warm piece of garlic naan. Roti, butter whole wheeat goodness. Kulcha, stuffed with paneer (cheese), how could you go wrong!
See this is where I get myself into trouble.. now I'm hungry!
But this is the problem, I can make a handful of Indian dishes at home have some mediocre rice and a decent piece of bread but it never compares to the restaurant quality.
Speaking of WHICH!!! There is one new found item of interest from last week!
I stumbled upon a Indian/Sri Lankan place in Anaheim, I grabbed a to go menu and have yet to fully peruse the items... I may try and get the wifey to go next week?!?!?
So.. I did have a major soup fail this past weekend... I attempted a asian noodle soup.. MAJOR FAIL!!
Mami style (Philipine/Chow Mein) do not go well as a soup.. or the stock I had sucked!!
All the flavors where there.. but they just were not cohesive... it really sucked!! Oh well the dogs like it!
So on top of that fail... today I was cursed with crappy instant American microwave cheesey noodle bowl! Betty Crocker Bowl Appetit Rotini cheese noodle crap!
Really I've been off of this processed crap for so long that I now understand that it really is just crap!!!
The best part of cooking at home is that your well cooking at home... I guess. There are a number of reasons as to why you enjoy it, costs, watching the ingredients, you just like to cook or whatever. For me it's the satisfaction of creating something, however there is usually something missing vs say going out to eat, namely the full range of options. Sure I can make a dish or two of Indian food though I don't always have the other items. Usually it's Naan and rice, but it's not like these are difficult items to procure. Trader Joes offers 2 frozen varieties of Naan, plain & garlic. Though in my pursuit of all things authentic I've traveled to Little Indian on occasion and found that you can get the same items here, plus more! What if you wanted a paratha or a kulcha or a roti? If you happen to know of a near by Indian market you can find these items, which by the way are a bread item in case you didn't know. For me it is single handedly the most dangerous cuisine in the world! Here you have a delicious Lamb Vindaloo what do you do with all of this leftover sauce sitting here... that's where these flatbread items come into play. Paratha's... yummy flakey croissant like flat bread. Naan, nothing compares to fresh warm piece of garlic naan. Roti, butter whole wheeat goodness. Kulcha, stuffed with paneer (cheese), how could you go wrong!
See this is where I get myself into trouble.. now I'm hungry!
But this is the problem, I can make a handful of Indian dishes at home have some mediocre rice and a decent piece of bread but it never compares to the restaurant quality.
Speaking of WHICH!!! There is one new found item of interest from last week!
I stumbled upon a Indian/Sri Lankan place in Anaheim, I grabbed a to go menu and have yet to fully peruse the items... I may try and get the wifey to go next week?!?!?
So.. I did have a major soup fail this past weekend... I attempted a asian noodle soup.. MAJOR FAIL!!
Mami style (Philipine/Chow Mein) do not go well as a soup.. or the stock I had sucked!!
All the flavors where there.. but they just were not cohesive... it really sucked!! Oh well the dogs like it!
So on top of that fail... today I was cursed with crappy instant American microwave cheesey noodle bowl! Betty Crocker Bowl Appetit Rotini cheese noodle crap!
Really I've been off of this processed crap for so long that I now understand that it really is just crap!!!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Seriously...
I feel like a fat kid at fat camp who found the contraband locker and everyone is gone on a 4 hour hike... this brownie is amazing...
Weakness
Cake.. chocolate.. German...
Now imagine if there was a brownie version of this.. hot damn.. it is so fucking good. So my daughter picked one up for me from Sweet Jill's, which is a bakery in Seal Beach and Long Beach. She grabbed it at the SB location.
I haven't had anything this yummy in forever...
Speaking of sweet shops, LBC had one called Grandma Sugarplums.. I miss that place.
Now imagine if there was a brownie version of this.. hot damn.. it is so fucking good. So my daughter picked one up for me from Sweet Jill's, which is a bakery in Seal Beach and Long Beach. She grabbed it at the SB location.
I haven't had anything this yummy in forever...
Speaking of sweet shops, LBC had one called Grandma Sugarplums.. I miss that place.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Comida Yonke
First I do not speak Spanish at all... so don't let the title fool you. I have a very limited Spanglish vocabulary and get ridiculed by my wife all the time for my poor grammar and even "poorer" pronunciation.
So has the title says Junk Food... the items in question for the menu for this weekend. I've been wanting to make Sloppy Jose's and hot wings since before the Super Bowl. To add to this culinary antacid extravaganza, a new Mac n Cheese recipe I got from the LA Times.
To highlight the menu choices...
Less than 6 months ago I made hot wings from scratch. They turned out freaking great and I'm looking to recreate that. I need to refrain from "experimentation" as these were adequate and filled the craving and hot wing void that had accumulated over the months. Hooters was not in the budget and all in all one of my favorite wing places to go to. (I'm wondering if I could make a corn meal crust..... must... re..frain from.. experimentation...)
Second on the list is my experiment... Sloppy Jose's, the "Mexican" twist to Sloppy Joe's. Apparently loose meat sandwiches are a dime a dozen and this once could even well be nothing new, but for me it is.
As I love nachos.. l-o-v-e'em and love all things spicy. I was thinking about a attempted meal my wife made from a Pillsbury cookbook, basically it was a cheeseburger macaroni-esque loose meat sandwich. They were ok... something was missing. The meat was ehn and they just did not have enough cheese oomph to them. So I started thinking why not take the Sloppy Joe and make em a bit spicier and add nacho cheese sauce to it. Now that I think about it.. I'm torn... tortilla or a hamburger bun. I'll make 'em both ways. The nacho cheese aspect will be made from scratch, I just need to figure out what chilies to use. The meat will be more on the ground beef taco meat side, so this will be a total WT meal.
hhmm.. The mac n cheese recipe is yet again an attempt to confirm that the only MnC that I like, comes from a box. I may tweak the cheese a bit on this as it calls for Parmegiano and add some Romano and Asiago to it as well. Though for me.. I always have and always will love the blue box..
So has the title says Junk Food... the items in question for the menu for this weekend. I've been wanting to make Sloppy Jose's and hot wings since before the Super Bowl. To add to this culinary antacid extravaganza, a new Mac n Cheese recipe I got from the LA Times.
To highlight the menu choices...
Less than 6 months ago I made hot wings from scratch. They turned out freaking great and I'm looking to recreate that. I need to refrain from "experimentation" as these were adequate and filled the craving and hot wing void that had accumulated over the months. Hooters was not in the budget and all in all one of my favorite wing places to go to. (I'm wondering if I could make a corn meal crust..... must... re..frain from.. experimentation...)
Second on the list is my experiment... Sloppy Jose's, the "Mexican" twist to Sloppy Joe's. Apparently loose meat sandwiches are a dime a dozen and this once could even well be nothing new, but for me it is.
As I love nachos.. l-o-v-e'em and love all things spicy. I was thinking about a attempted meal my wife made from a Pillsbury cookbook, basically it was a cheeseburger macaroni-esque loose meat sandwich. They were ok... something was missing. The meat was ehn and they just did not have enough cheese oomph to them. So I started thinking why not take the Sloppy Joe and make em a bit spicier and add nacho cheese sauce to it. Now that I think about it.. I'm torn... tortilla or a hamburger bun. I'll make 'em both ways. The nacho cheese aspect will be made from scratch, I just need to figure out what chilies to use. The meat will be more on the ground beef taco meat side, so this will be a total WT meal.
hhmm.. The mac n cheese recipe is yet again an attempt to confirm that the only MnC that I like, comes from a box. I may tweak the cheese a bit on this as it calls for Parmegiano and add some Romano and Asiago to it as well. Though for me.. I always have and always will love the blue box..
Monday, March 8, 2010
Wed-nes-day
So my Pop is in town this week. Dinner is the agenda for Wednesday. I'm a bit torn on my options. While there are a number of restaurants near us that we could go to, I want to go somewhere new.
There is a Argentinian place near us, along with some Asian inspired Nawlins' style seafood. I found a review for a Chinese place as well. Decisions?!?!?!?
There is a Argentinian place near us, along with some Asian inspired Nawlins' style seafood. I found a review for a Chinese place as well. Decisions?!?!?!?
Ooo lay.. souffle!
Sunday, Williams Sonoma technical cooking class. Subject, souffles - savory and sweet.
I'd been wanting to (needing to) do something regarding cooking, though I find myself struggling with a bit of the uninspired melancholy funk as of late. My motivation has gone to shit on trying to lose weight as well, though I may find myself on the bike this evening.
So standing in the WS store on Sunday afternoon, to watch the technical demonstration on souffles was good. It's one of those things that you if you've watched any number of cooking shows or used any number of recipes and always had a nagging question afterwards. Salted or unsalted butter, what size eggs, cold or room temperature, how to melt chocolate properly, etc., etc. It's also a good class to confirm things you know, what are soft peaks vs stiff peaks on egg whites, folding in egg whites, and understanding that certain things just can't be rushed in making a meal.
The class consisted of a chocolate souffle and a leek & Gruyere souffle. I'm partial to the leek and Gruyere, the chocolate seemed a like a failed attempt at making a cake.
So needless to say we have souffle on the menu for the week, spinach & bacon. Also planned is a quiche, which is a hit and miss with me. I'm going to have to scan the souffle guide I got and post it up here soon.
Additionally I picked up a very nice heavy duty ricer, which I promptly used last night in my cream of broccoli soup (recipe courtesy of M Bittman - How to Cook Everything). Though I did not have stock on hand I used some Knoor Chicken bouillon and added some herbs, thyme, dill, and oregano, along with garlic salt.
Came out good, I didn't make it creamy smooth it was a bit on the rough side, but still good, I have about half a gallon.
I'd been wanting to (needing to) do something regarding cooking, though I find myself struggling with a bit of the uninspired melancholy funk as of late. My motivation has gone to shit on trying to lose weight as well, though I may find myself on the bike this evening.
So standing in the WS store on Sunday afternoon, to watch the technical demonstration on souffles was good. It's one of those things that you if you've watched any number of cooking shows or used any number of recipes and always had a nagging question afterwards. Salted or unsalted butter, what size eggs, cold or room temperature, how to melt chocolate properly, etc., etc. It's also a good class to confirm things you know, what are soft peaks vs stiff peaks on egg whites, folding in egg whites, and understanding that certain things just can't be rushed in making a meal.
The class consisted of a chocolate souffle and a leek & Gruyere souffle. I'm partial to the leek and Gruyere, the chocolate seemed a like a failed attempt at making a cake.
So needless to say we have souffle on the menu for the week, spinach & bacon. Also planned is a quiche, which is a hit and miss with me. I'm going to have to scan the souffle guide I got and post it up here soon.
Additionally I picked up a very nice heavy duty ricer, which I promptly used last night in my cream of broccoli soup (recipe courtesy of M Bittman - How to Cook Everything). Though I did not have stock on hand I used some Knoor Chicken bouillon and added some herbs, thyme, dill, and oregano, along with garlic salt.
Came out good, I didn't make it creamy smooth it was a bit on the rough side, but still good, I have about half a gallon.
Friday, March 5, 2010
O Top Thai BBQ - Review
Yum.. I love Thai Yellow Curry. Something about curry and rice that is probably one of the ultimate comfort foods for me, though I have come to find no two curries are a like.
O Top Thai BBQ, located in a little strip mall in Gardena, on Vermont North of Artesia. This is a little hole in the wall place, clean, minimally decorated and a large menu considering the size of the place.
Normally I frequent 3 Spice which is down the street from work, but in my search for somewhere to eat I decided to search for a new Thai place, I get bored easily. Now I haven't fully explored the menu at 3 Spice and it's not like it's nearly as large as O Top and generally my lunch time options are limited to the lunch time menu or specials.
So entering it looks like a couple of older ladies man the station here taking orders and waiting tables, so I'm not sure who is the cook. They were attentive and brought items to the table without my asking, aside from some chopsticks which is not fault there. I basically already knew what I wanted before walking in as I'd looked at the menu online, which is a lot smaller than what is in store.
The lunch specials go for $5.50... yes! With that you get a salad, fried rice (I had steamed), a couple of fried wontons and your selection. At first I felt the portion was a bit skimpy but I do not feel empty or left wanting for more. Additionally I had a Thai Iced Tea. All in all it came to $7.49, so I left a $2 tip.
There were some "weird" things with this experience. 1) I think at some point while taking my order she may have gotten the impression that I spoke Thai, which only gave a puzzled and confused response to her possible question. 2) The initial taste seemed, odd. It seemed like my main dish including the rice had a "Asian essence" to it. Sort of like when you walk into someone's house and it has that "cooking aroma" to it, and that aroma depends on the culture of the household. After about 1 minute into it it seemed to disappear, though I know I could eat that curry again. I did feel the internal "gorge" factor want more after I was done and found myself scraping what I could of what was left of the curry sauce.
I have a few items that I need to go back and try, the soups, the Pad Thai & other noodles dishes, the BBQ chicken and the appetizers. This place is dirt cheap even on the main course items, definitely would be worthwhile to bring a larger group.
Key things to know:
Cash Only!
There is a parking lot, though not many spots. Street parking is available.
Cheap lunch!!
O Top Thai BBQ, located in a little strip mall in Gardena, on Vermont North of Artesia. This is a little hole in the wall place, clean, minimally decorated and a large menu considering the size of the place.
Normally I frequent 3 Spice which is down the street from work, but in my search for somewhere to eat I decided to search for a new Thai place, I get bored easily. Now I haven't fully explored the menu at 3 Spice and it's not like it's nearly as large as O Top and generally my lunch time options are limited to the lunch time menu or specials.
So entering it looks like a couple of older ladies man the station here taking orders and waiting tables, so I'm not sure who is the cook. They were attentive and brought items to the table without my asking, aside from some chopsticks which is not fault there. I basically already knew what I wanted before walking in as I'd looked at the menu online, which is a lot smaller than what is in store.
The lunch specials go for $5.50... yes! With that you get a salad, fried rice (I had steamed), a couple of fried wontons and your selection. At first I felt the portion was a bit skimpy but I do not feel empty or left wanting for more. Additionally I had a Thai Iced Tea. All in all it came to $7.49, so I left a $2 tip.
There were some "weird" things with this experience. 1) I think at some point while taking my order she may have gotten the impression that I spoke Thai, which only gave a puzzled and confused response to her possible question. 2) The initial taste seemed, odd. It seemed like my main dish including the rice had a "Asian essence" to it. Sort of like when you walk into someone's house and it has that "cooking aroma" to it, and that aroma depends on the culture of the household. After about 1 minute into it it seemed to disappear, though I know I could eat that curry again. I did feel the internal "gorge" factor want more after I was done and found myself scraping what I could of what was left of the curry sauce.
I have a few items that I need to go back and try, the soups, the Pad Thai & other noodles dishes, the BBQ chicken and the appetizers. This place is dirt cheap even on the main course items, definitely would be worthwhile to bring a larger group.
Key things to know:
Cash Only!
There is a parking lot, though not many spots. Street parking is available.
Cheap lunch!!
....duck...duck....duck...goose!
So I'm slacking on this so called "foodie blog". I've been a bit emotional as of late and need to snap the hell out of it, my un-cat like senses have been on extreme red terrorist alert levels lately. In fact my stress levels have managed to block out all the wonderful things I've been wanting to talk about.
I've missed my King's Fish House review, I did one the other day on Noorami via my cell phone. If you look them up on Yelp you can view their menu. Good stuff!
I had some other things I wanted to blab about on here, I made a interesting rice/bean bowl dish this past weekend. It was missing something, while individually the items tasted great I don't think they worked well all together. The beans turned out good, the rice was fine, the salsa was not as spicy as I'd hope (add serrano's next time) and so it just sort of fell flat. The lime cilantro chicken was the best and gave me hope for more future chicken dishes. I wouldn't call the dish a failure, but unexpected discovery of something else. Sort of like the discovery for penicillin!
That was about the only thing that I have made, though I was talking about my salsa recipe (pico de gallo) and I've been slowly tweaking it each time I make it.
So 3 weeks ago I made it and had the complaint that it was not spicy enough. So this last time I used 3 jalapeno's and fire roasted them. Which did absolutely nothing.. no significant additional heat as expected. Additionally I discovered that I should not use Roma tomatoes for salsa, I've found them to no have a the appropriate tomato flavor needed.
Basically the recipe is as follows:
It's a 3 to .5 ratio for tomatoes vs onions. So for 3 med-lrg tomatoes I'd use half a med white onion. Then a whole bunch of cilantro, juice of one large lime and about 1-2 teaspoons of garlic salt. Now depending on how much heat you want add the peppers as needed, if you want Taco Bell hot add 1-2 jalapenos if you want more authentic use 1-2 serranos, this should make it fairly spicy.
Dice up all the vegetables, chop up the cilantro, mix in a container with juice and salt then put in the fridge till chilled. Stir again then serve.
It makes a great snack with some homemade tortilla chips.
Tonight my wife is supposed to make Palak Paneer/Saag Paneer (Spinach w/ cheese), it's a Indian dish that I love! Looks like baby crap, but one of my favorite vegetarian dishes. To which I think I could be a vegetarian if I had to eat Indian food as my only option!
Supposedly I'm should be making chicken tikka masala as well this weekend.. but it looks like the events that are planned may throw everything out the window. I do know lamb is on the menu however.
Now my dilemma for the day is what am I supposed to eat for lunch?? Japanese.. Vietnamese... Mexican... Mediterranean?
Tomorrow I have the Torrance Farmer's Market to go to... there is a guy there that sell plants (seedlings) on the cheap. Great place to go for starting a herb garden.
I've missed my King's Fish House review, I did one the other day on Noorami via my cell phone. If you look them up on Yelp you can view their menu. Good stuff!
I had some other things I wanted to blab about on here, I made a interesting rice/bean bowl dish this past weekend. It was missing something, while individually the items tasted great I don't think they worked well all together. The beans turned out good, the rice was fine, the salsa was not as spicy as I'd hope (add serrano's next time) and so it just sort of fell flat. The lime cilantro chicken was the best and gave me hope for more future chicken dishes. I wouldn't call the dish a failure, but unexpected discovery of something else. Sort of like the discovery for penicillin!
That was about the only thing that I have made, though I was talking about my salsa recipe (pico de gallo) and I've been slowly tweaking it each time I make it.
So 3 weeks ago I made it and had the complaint that it was not spicy enough. So this last time I used 3 jalapeno's and fire roasted them. Which did absolutely nothing.. no significant additional heat as expected. Additionally I discovered that I should not use Roma tomatoes for salsa, I've found them to no have a the appropriate tomato flavor needed.
Basically the recipe is as follows:
It's a 3 to .5 ratio for tomatoes vs onions. So for 3 med-lrg tomatoes I'd use half a med white onion. Then a whole bunch of cilantro, juice of one large lime and about 1-2 teaspoons of garlic salt. Now depending on how much heat you want add the peppers as needed, if you want Taco Bell hot add 1-2 jalapenos if you want more authentic use 1-2 serranos, this should make it fairly spicy.
Dice up all the vegetables, chop up the cilantro, mix in a container with juice and salt then put in the fridge till chilled. Stir again then serve.
It makes a great snack with some homemade tortilla chips.
Tonight my wife is supposed to make Palak Paneer/Saag Paneer (Spinach w/ cheese), it's a Indian dish that I love! Looks like baby crap, but one of my favorite vegetarian dishes. To which I think I could be a vegetarian if I had to eat Indian food as my only option!
Supposedly I'm should be making chicken tikka masala as well this weekend.. but it looks like the events that are planned may throw everything out the window. I do know lamb is on the menu however.
Now my dilemma for the day is what am I supposed to eat for lunch?? Japanese.. Vietnamese... Mexican... Mediterranean?
Tomorrow I have the Torrance Farmer's Market to go to... there is a guy there that sell plants (seedlings) on the cheap. Great place to go for starting a herb garden.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Noorami - Garden Grove - Review
Yum yum yum. Ok I love Indian food and especially like all things curry, Indian and non Indian alike.
Noorami Halal, a non typical restaurant situated in a strip mall smack down on the end of Brookhurst in Little Saigon, actually it is just South of Westminster.
This establishment is a conglomeration of Pakistani/Indian, and the menu shows it.
The restaurant is spartan on decor though is clean and presentable. The staff was courteous and attentive, even if just for take out.
Initially I was hoping to get some chicken tikka masal, but was overruled due to price ($10 - dollar extra if you want breast meat) and settled on the chicken qurma (qoorma), aloo palak (spinach w/ potatoes), mixed vegetable curry, rice, and a couple orders of garlic naan.
Oooohhh my gosh... This shit was sooo fucking good. Really I consider Indian food to be like crack for me, and one place in Lawndale (Al Noor) I can never get enough.
I liked the spice flavor overall, it was a tad bit greasey but that doesn't bother me all that much. I think over all it a good place and one of the better ones I have been to. The naan was loaded with fresh garlic, however it seemed to be reheated in a microwave as it was a bit chewy.
This place also has a weekend buffet for about $12. Also daily lunch and dinner combo deals.
Stress and cheating
Needless to say I haven't posted in afew days. I have a number of reviews (actually maybe a handful) that I'm sorely backlogged on.
This can all be attributed to my wonderfully craptastic job and fuckwad employers. As of which I have not felt like writing or anything of that nature, though I should.
As far as the cheating goes, apparently I am a stress eater. So not good. This has been written after consuming a Jr Whopper, perhaps if I can move past my apathy I would care and maybe feel guilty. Maybe.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Apparently I'm funny in my dreams
So I sholuld be awake, however either my gas woke me up or that funny ass joke (IMO) woke me up. So aparently I was eating in some sort of fast food place. A seafood place. At a table with 3 other people that I have no idea who they are let alone their faces, aside maybe one might Jessica Alba, I had watched Good Luck Chuck last night. Fuck she can't act.
So in said dream we were apparently being served fish balls, it was apparently the establishment's twist on fish sticks. Do you like fish sticks? So there was this waiter coming by the table offering samples of the following, Buffalo, Blue Cheese, and BBQ. Don't ask me why those flavors, any way I know my delivery on this is going to suck as I have all the timing of a nuclear bomb. So he was going into his spielabout how we need to try, though I was not really paying attention. He had noticed and I guess was trying to be snarking and had asked if I could name all three flavors just so that he could say the customer's had been told or something to that affect. Where at this point sone of the other table members, said to me in refernce to the free samples," Are you going to touch that, Zero?", which I replied, " I touch 7 to 10's and maybe an occasional 5, I don't touch zeroes." ......
So anyway there was also some reference from the waiter about how even pirates like to eat them.... on Arrrrrbor day. Apparently I was laughing in my sleep, which would not be the first time. I've also been know to have sex in my sleep, that's the weird one.
Perhaps it was the yummy pakistani food from last night?
So in said dream we were apparently being served fish balls, it was apparently the establishment's twist on fish sticks. Do you like fish sticks? So there was this waiter coming by the table offering samples of the following, Buffalo, Blue Cheese, and BBQ. Don't ask me why those flavors, any way I know my delivery on this is going to suck as I have all the timing of a nuclear bomb. So he was going into his spielabout how we need to try, though I was not really paying attention. He had noticed and I guess was trying to be snarking and had asked if I could name all three flavors just so that he could say the customer's had been told or something to that affect. Where at this point sone of the other table members, said to me in refernce to the free samples," Are you going to touch that, Zero?", which I replied, " I touch 7 to 10's and maybe an occasional 5, I don't touch zeroes." ......
So anyway there was also some reference from the waiter about how even pirates like to eat them.... on Arrrrrbor day. Apparently I was laughing in my sleep, which would not be the first time. I've also been know to have sex in my sleep, that's the weird one.
Perhaps it was the yummy pakistani food from last night?
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Where's that food truck again??
Where is a good place to eat....?
In some ways I reluctantly took up this mantel of "blogging about food", partly because one I've sort of come to terms that it really is the one thing that I gravitate towards again and again, b) I find it a bit pretentious (and I'm usually not on most things) and also feel I'm 10 years too late for this medium. Seriously, the gamut of reality shows has come and gone. Where is the "Am I Hot or Not" website these days? Not that it's gone, but as far as popularity, I think I smell the death of MySpace on the horizon.
So today I read a article on Wired about Yelp' potential extortion advertising racket. Now like most people I've already formed an opinion and actually at first wanted to hang Yelp out to dry, however after finishing the article I calmed myself down a bit and have resumed a neutral by suspicious stance with Yelp.
For me Yelp is my defacto go-to "where to eat" reference and I have used it on occasion to post a actual review for a handful of places. Now understand that I take the sight with a fairly small grain of salt, as it is just one component that I use to compare the place. Like I said earlier, I feel like I have jumped into this "blog" thing 10 years too late and why does my opinion matter.. again a bit pretentious.
When there is someplace I want to go eat at I use a number of factors, type of food/cuisine, and the amount of vocal traffic the place has received from any number of sources, ie. Yelp, Chowhound, misc. food blogs, friends, etc.. This is what I use to make a decision, then after which I file the experience away.
So with Yelp potentially being involved in crap of this nature is a bit shitty, honestly. First understand that nothing prevents their site from being padded by any party good or bad from posting reviews. Hell I think something worth promoting for a business would be post a positive review and get a percentage off of your bill. All you have to do is bring in a print out of it, but conversely nothing prevents you from changing said review afterwards. So to keep the philosophical rants to a minimum, let's just say I have similar views about people as a whole as that of Julie Powell, so needless to say this is the way things are - shit or get off the pot.
While there is no sure rating/scoring system for making recommendations, Yelp is fairly good though a bit too mainstream/top40/whitebread in it's reviews for my personal tastes. What I mean to say is that I feel that some of the reviews are made by scared people, people who are scared to leave their bubble of reality. If you like food like me, then does it matter where you go or where you eat?
If you could find the best carne asada tacos from a taco truck smack dab in the middle of the ghetto, would you go? I sure as hell would! I'm going for food, not to roll someone.
If you do any bit of traveling to other countries you'll run into scenarios like this. Hell I recall a Anthony Bourdain episode of being in India... I think he went to one "tourista" restaurant... or am I thinking of Andrew Zimmermn? Again, food is about exploring the world with your mouth. I myself have many things that I timidly draw the line on, offal being one, but not including menudo.
I'm interested on how this turns out, better or worse.
So today I read a article on Wired about Yelp' potential extortion advertising racket. Now like most people I've already formed an opinion and actually at first wanted to hang Yelp out to dry, however after finishing the article I calmed myself down a bit and have resumed a neutral by suspicious stance with Yelp.
For me Yelp is my defacto go-to "where to eat" reference and I have used it on occasion to post a actual review for a handful of places. Now understand that I take the sight with a fairly small grain of salt, as it is just one component that I use to compare the place. Like I said earlier, I feel like I have jumped into this "blog" thing 10 years too late and why does my opinion matter.. again a bit pretentious.
When there is someplace I want to go eat at I use a number of factors, type of food/cuisine, and the amount of vocal traffic the place has received from any number of sources, ie. Yelp, Chowhound, misc. food blogs, friends, etc.. This is what I use to make a decision, then after which I file the experience away.
So with Yelp potentially being involved in crap of this nature is a bit shitty, honestly. First understand that nothing prevents their site from being padded by any party good or bad from posting reviews. Hell I think something worth promoting for a business would be post a positive review and get a percentage off of your bill. All you have to do is bring in a print out of it, but conversely nothing prevents you from changing said review afterwards. So to keep the philosophical rants to a minimum, let's just say I have similar views about people as a whole as that of Julie Powell, so needless to say this is the way things are - shit or get off the pot.
While there is no sure rating/scoring system for making recommendations, Yelp is fairly good though a bit too mainstream/top40/whitebread in it's reviews for my personal tastes. What I mean to say is that I feel that some of the reviews are made by scared people, people who are scared to leave their bubble of reality. If you like food like me, then does it matter where you go or where you eat?
If you could find the best carne asada tacos from a taco truck smack dab in the middle of the ghetto, would you go? I sure as hell would! I'm going for food, not to roll someone.
If you do any bit of traveling to other countries you'll run into scenarios like this. Hell I recall a Anthony Bourdain episode of being in India... I think he went to one "tourista" restaurant... or am I thinking of Andrew Zimmermn? Again, food is about exploring the world with your mouth. I myself have many things that I timidly draw the line on, offal being one, but not including menudo.
I'm interested on how this turns out, better or worse.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Fin and Fin
Well I was supposed to have a review from the Fish House up here today, however the save draft function on my BlackBerry apparently does not "truly" save it. So now I need to write a new one. Which is fine, but that means I'm a bit behind on the other things I need to write about, as it has been a eventful week, despite not really eating anything or doing anything "foodie-esq".
So I finished reading the J/J blog today and I'm finding myself a bit lost in some ways, though I do have some other things I need to start on. Seeing as I have a healthy amount of time and no shortage of available information and topics to spend my time on, I've decided my next endeavor is to read through my copy of the La'rousse Gastronomique.
Also I have signed my wife and myself up for some baking technique classes offered by Williams Sonoma for the month of March. Though seeing as they offer other classes, I may need to occupy my time with these as well.
Now tonight I need to find what to cook for dinner this weekend, one idea is inspired from the food carts in Portland. A rice and bean bowl with a ton a flavor and fills you up! I just need to come up with a special sauce for it and add some chicken. Oh how I miss the food carts in Portland.
So I finished reading the J/J blog today and I'm finding myself a bit lost in some ways, though I do have some other things I need to start on. Seeing as I have a healthy amount of time and no shortage of available information and topics to spend my time on, I've decided my next endeavor is to read through my copy of the La'rousse Gastronomique.
Also I have signed my wife and myself up for some baking technique classes offered by Williams Sonoma for the month of March. Though seeing as they offer other classes, I may need to occupy my time with these as well.
Now tonight I need to find what to cook for dinner this weekend, one idea is inspired from the food carts in Portland. A rice and bean bowl with a ton a flavor and fills you up! I just need to come up with a special sauce for it and add some chicken. Oh how I miss the food carts in Portland.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Review guidelines
Seeing as I'll have reviews for this site I'm thinking I need a few parameters that I need to establish.
Basically as follows:
- What the place is. How does it compare to similar restaurants. Why was this place chosen.
- The pros and cons. Food, ambience & service.
- Yea or nay. Overall is it a keeper or not.
Fairly simple and to the point. Generally I'm not that picky about the ambience, some of the best food I've had has been from a roadside stand or a food cart. To me food is about experiences, the good ones you want to relive again and again. The bad ones... Well we try desperately to forget those.
Do what inspires you....
For far too long I have passed up or passed by things that inspire me. I have been critical in things I don't like far too often and spent way too much time on "what should I do?" in the past twenty some odd years.
Then again perhaps now is the time, perhaps now I've "gotten it out of my system". It truly does come down to food for me, there has been nothing else that seems to fulfill this pointless meandering that I have been doing for years. As I write this I'm trying to think where and when did it start and I'd have to say probably with Jeff Smith. It was him that introduced me to food and cooking and ingredients, I remember him talking about Parmesan cheese and how emphatic he was about using not using the stuff in the "green can" but Parmigiano Reggiano. I started watching other shows over the years, Cooking at the Academy was probably the one where I first thought of wanting to go to culinary school.
Though it's reading tid bit's like this that continues to inspire me. Despite setbacks and circumstances and years of floundering and lazy self inflicted discontentment whining about where I am at. This reminds me again, do what you love, do what inspires you.
Thanks again to the J/J blog... it's where I found the article... and the inspiration.
Then again perhaps now is the time, perhaps now I've "gotten it out of my system". It truly does come down to food for me, there has been nothing else that seems to fulfill this pointless meandering that I have been doing for years. As I write this I'm trying to think where and when did it start and I'd have to say probably with Jeff Smith. It was him that introduced me to food and cooking and ingredients, I remember him talking about Parmesan cheese and how emphatic he was about using not using the stuff in the "green can" but Parmigiano Reggiano. I started watching other shows over the years, Cooking at the Academy was probably the one where I first thought of wanting to go to culinary school.
Though it's reading tid bit's like this that continues to inspire me. Despite setbacks and circumstances and years of floundering and lazy self inflicted discontentment whining about where I am at. This reminds me again, do what you love, do what inspires you.
Thanks again to the J/J blog... it's where I found the article... and the inspiration.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Fish Shrimp Chicken
What a busy weekend. Here I am over the weekend thinking why I am doing this again, when Friday night Nikki says you should start a food blog. Both my wife and I laughed at the same time. Ok, fine twist my arm I'll get one going. So where to start and what to recap.
Well originally we were supposed to got to the Napa Rose for a belated V-day dinner. So usually I don't have problems booking for a place a week in advance, but apparently EVERYWHERE was booked early this year. I'd also looked at Marche Moderne, as I've yet to actually eat at a "french" restaurant and recently the J/J blog has me all sorts of interested in french food. Which has me thinking that they need to make more movies based on cooking or cookbooks or the like. So apparently everything was booked for the whole weekend last week and so dinner got postponed to the following weekend. However needless to say, we'd spent a bit much the previous week and were not able to go to the Napa Rose, this has been postponed for her birthday. Instead we ended up going to King's Fish House, which I was a bit surprised as my wife does not like seafood (sans lobster, shrimp, & fish n chips). The evening was fine till a moment of financial nagging which put a damper on the meal at the start, but cooler heads prevailed and did not escalate into WW III. After which we cruised over to the LBC to chill with the Creeps for a bit, guided them to the nearest JITB* as the hotel they were at the kitchen had closed. Watched the last 20 minutes of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (mmmmmm.. love me some White Castle - not the frozen stuff but the real deal) then went home.
Saturday was running around doing returns of items from the overspending weekend before. Part of this included a stop at a restaurant supply store in Anaheim on Ball & Anaheim Blvd, it's on Anaheim Blvd North of Ball on the left hand side past the gas station. Not a bad little shop, looked like it mostly catered to the Mom & Pop type restaurants, though they had a nice assortment of just about everything (except for a nice mandolin slicer). They had the institutional sized cook ware and things for the home as well, quality ranged from ehn to nice. I did not see any brand name items (i.e. All Clad, Cuisinart, Kitchen-aide/Hobart, etc) though seeing as I have never worked in a profession kitchen I am not all that familiar with ALL professional brand names. There is a restaurant supply place in Fountain Valley that is on the to do list, you can see it off the 405 freeway near Euclid. So after the the errands were done we stopped by one of the local Korean Markets near the house, Freshia on Beach and Garden Grove Blvd.
This place is a trap... I love asian food, and Korean is near the top of the list. I could eat it everyday, something about the pickled spicy vegetable dishes and the BBQ always has me wanting more. So the planned dinner for the evening was shrimp tacos/burritos and nine times outta ten i can get better shrimp at a cheaper price by going to the ethnic markets. I'll have another rant about mainstream markets at a later date, but bottom line is you don't have to pay top dollar for quality, the ethnic markets generally have better quality at cheaper prices. So I grabbed a few pounds of shrimp ($4 a lb and these were the med/lrg ones), grabbed some produce as it is pretty cheap here as well. Cleaning the shrimp included removing shells and tails, rinsing and cutting up to about the size of gumdrops, they are easier to manage in the tortillas this way. One thing I noticed is this time around cleaning shrimp is that if I removed the tails first the cleaning process went a bit faster and I had a good number of shrimp to clean. Now some may get a bit weirded out on this but I did not do a FULL clean process of the shrimp.... I left that one item intact.... yes, the intestinal tract. I just did not care that much and said whatever. It really is a mental thing... and one of those things that I think we as a AMERICAN society allow ourselves to become more and more "disinfected" as the generations go by. A little shrimp shit ain't gonna kill ya...
So dinner was garlic shrimp burritos/tacos with chipotle mayo (or not) with fresh salsa. Damn this salsa rocked! Despite the complaint of "it's not hot enough", as it was not supposed to be. Dinner rocked and I was really surprised, not in that it rocked, but that you could feed a family of 4 for 20 bucks and it was seafood!
Now Sunday was a different story and I have to remind myself that INFERNO spicy is not always a good thing, but that was lunch on Friday and not dinner on Sunday. Though lunch on Friday was the inspiration for Sunday dinner, Thai Yellow Chicken Curry. This was a hit and miss and seeing as I had never made it before will definitely try again. It was a bit too lemony/limey. Oi!
Friday I had Thai, but it was not yellow curry, it was beef with flat noodle Rad Nee or something to that affect with way too many red peppers. Needless to say I was hating life later that evening. On a side note I hate getting older, I love spicy food and generally with Thai or Indian I like to have it on the INFERNO hot side, though my insides would disagree. Now I found this recipe for making the yellow curry on the Thai About Food site. Overall I'd say they have the recipe down pat, but it's one that I need to mess around with. I need to find that right consistency of liquid creaminess viscosity as it was a bit on the thin side when I pulled it out. Now this is another relatively cheap dish to make, there are a few key items and I would say there are items that you MUST NOT substitute despite the original recipe from the site. A key ingredient for this would be GALANGAL or white ginger as I came to find out, this is one of those essential Thai ingredients. It really is different from plain ol' ginger. Additionally looking for lime leaves (kaffir lime leaves), proved to be a pain in the ass. This was the second time that I attempted to located these buggers and I "think" I found them, and there was a noticeable difference in aroma between these and the lime leaves I have in my garden. Both the galangal and the lime leaves were found at the Ranch 99 in Anaheim. Ranch 99 is a Chinese store and one of my favorites as they offer live seafood and a larger than average meat department, including goat. BTW, galangal is very otherworldly looking as it is a tuber/root. It reminded me of the Jerusalem Crickets we have around the house and it was a tad pricey. I'd say about "tree fitty" for something about the size of a king size Snickers. Consequently I'm attempting to use this piece to grow my own. I like Thai but don't see me cooking much except on the weekends. All in all the dish felt/tasted Thai though I think the combination was off, I'm thinking more coconut milk, less lemongrass (which can be purchased fresh or frozen at Ranch 99, they fresh at Freshia, not sure about frozen).
Now I have to figure out what to have for this weekend, plus some additional one offs on Kings and the individual dinners this past weekend.
*JITB - Jack In The Box (I wish they would bring back that Ham and Turkey Melt they had back in the 80's).
Well originally we were supposed to got to the Napa Rose for a belated V-day dinner. So usually I don't have problems booking for a place a week in advance, but apparently EVERYWHERE was booked early this year. I'd also looked at Marche Moderne, as I've yet to actually eat at a "french" restaurant and recently the J/J blog has me all sorts of interested in french food. Which has me thinking that they need to make more movies based on cooking or cookbooks or the like. So apparently everything was booked for the whole weekend last week and so dinner got postponed to the following weekend. However needless to say, we'd spent a bit much the previous week and were not able to go to the Napa Rose, this has been postponed for her birthday. Instead we ended up going to King's Fish House, which I was a bit surprised as my wife does not like seafood (sans lobster, shrimp, & fish n chips). The evening was fine till a moment of financial nagging which put a damper on the meal at the start, but cooler heads prevailed and did not escalate into WW III. After which we cruised over to the LBC to chill with the Creeps for a bit, guided them to the nearest JITB* as the hotel they were at the kitchen had closed. Watched the last 20 minutes of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (mmmmmm.. love me some White Castle - not the frozen stuff but the real deal) then went home.
Saturday was running around doing returns of items from the overspending weekend before. Part of this included a stop at a restaurant supply store in Anaheim on Ball & Anaheim Blvd, it's on Anaheim Blvd North of Ball on the left hand side past the gas station. Not a bad little shop, looked like it mostly catered to the Mom & Pop type restaurants, though they had a nice assortment of just about everything (except for a nice mandolin slicer). They had the institutional sized cook ware and things for the home as well, quality ranged from ehn to nice. I did not see any brand name items (i.e. All Clad, Cuisinart, Kitchen-aide/Hobart, etc) though seeing as I have never worked in a profession kitchen I am not all that familiar with ALL professional brand names. There is a restaurant supply place in Fountain Valley that is on the to do list, you can see it off the 405 freeway near Euclid. So after the the errands were done we stopped by one of the local Korean Markets near the house, Freshia on Beach and Garden Grove Blvd.
This place is a trap... I love asian food, and Korean is near the top of the list. I could eat it everyday, something about the pickled spicy vegetable dishes and the BBQ always has me wanting more. So the planned dinner for the evening was shrimp tacos/burritos and nine times outta ten i can get better shrimp at a cheaper price by going to the ethnic markets. I'll have another rant about mainstream markets at a later date, but bottom line is you don't have to pay top dollar for quality, the ethnic markets generally have better quality at cheaper prices. So I grabbed a few pounds of shrimp ($4 a lb and these were the med/lrg ones), grabbed some produce as it is pretty cheap here as well. Cleaning the shrimp included removing shells and tails, rinsing and cutting up to about the size of gumdrops, they are easier to manage in the tortillas this way. One thing I noticed is this time around cleaning shrimp is that if I removed the tails first the cleaning process went a bit faster and I had a good number of shrimp to clean. Now some may get a bit weirded out on this but I did not do a FULL clean process of the shrimp.... I left that one item intact.... yes, the intestinal tract. I just did not care that much and said whatever. It really is a mental thing... and one of those things that I think we as a AMERICAN society allow ourselves to become more and more "disinfected" as the generations go by. A little shrimp shit ain't gonna kill ya...
So dinner was garlic shrimp burritos/tacos with chipotle mayo (or not) with fresh salsa. Damn this salsa rocked! Despite the complaint of "it's not hot enough", as it was not supposed to be. Dinner rocked and I was really surprised, not in that it rocked, but that you could feed a family of 4 for 20 bucks and it was seafood!
Now Sunday was a different story and I have to remind myself that INFERNO spicy is not always a good thing, but that was lunch on Friday and not dinner on Sunday. Though lunch on Friday was the inspiration for Sunday dinner, Thai Yellow Chicken Curry. This was a hit and miss and seeing as I had never made it before will definitely try again. It was a bit too lemony/limey. Oi!
Friday I had Thai, but it was not yellow curry, it was beef with flat noodle Rad Nee or something to that affect with way too many red peppers. Needless to say I was hating life later that evening. On a side note I hate getting older, I love spicy food and generally with Thai or Indian I like to have it on the INFERNO hot side, though my insides would disagree. Now I found this recipe for making the yellow curry on the Thai About Food site. Overall I'd say they have the recipe down pat, but it's one that I need to mess around with. I need to find that right consistency of liquid creaminess viscosity as it was a bit on the thin side when I pulled it out. Now this is another relatively cheap dish to make, there are a few key items and I would say there are items that you MUST NOT substitute despite the original recipe from the site. A key ingredient for this would be GALANGAL or white ginger as I came to find out, this is one of those essential Thai ingredients. It really is different from plain ol' ginger. Additionally looking for lime leaves (kaffir lime leaves), proved to be a pain in the ass. This was the second time that I attempted to located these buggers and I "think" I found them, and there was a noticeable difference in aroma between these and the lime leaves I have in my garden. Both the galangal and the lime leaves were found at the Ranch 99 in Anaheim. Ranch 99 is a Chinese store and one of my favorites as they offer live seafood and a larger than average meat department, including goat. BTW, galangal is very otherworldly looking as it is a tuber/root. It reminded me of the Jerusalem Crickets we have around the house and it was a tad pricey. I'd say about "tree fitty" for something about the size of a king size Snickers. Consequently I'm attempting to use this piece to grow my own. I like Thai but don't see me cooking much except on the weekends. All in all the dish felt/tasted Thai though I think the combination was off, I'm thinking more coconut milk, less lemongrass (which can be purchased fresh or frozen at Ranch 99, they fresh at Freshia, not sure about frozen).
Now I have to figure out what to have for this weekend, plus some additional one offs on Kings and the individual dinners this past weekend.
*JITB - Jack In The Box (I wish they would bring back that Ham and Turkey Melt they had back in the 80's).
Friday, February 19, 2010
Napa Rose - Oui Oui - Pt1
So tonight* is the V Day dinner at the Napa Rose, no not Victory Day, but Valentines Day. Almost a week late but thanks be told the wife is not adamant about the "day".
So she has been to the Napa Rose before, I have not, and I'm a bit unnerved about it. Going here for the first time, not her being here before. I'm a bit shocked, seeing has we've been to "fancy shmancy" places before and she said she was not impressed by them. I'm wanting to expand my "culinary palate" so to speak and there really is nothing on the menu that I see as "ooohhh aahhhh". Now I know that places like this have a changing menu because of the varying ingredients due to seasonal availability, though it is the 2010 Winter menu. They may also have a daily special that is not displayed.
With that said, there were a few items on the menu that piqued my interest, namely the duck and the rack of lamb. Duck I have not had (but thanks to Julie, I am dying to try), and I never get tired of lamb, as long as it is prepared well.
The big item I am interested in is the wine. Thanks to my Dad, I've developed a taste for wine, namely because he gave me a tasty grenache while up in Portland last Summer. Since then I've been more apt to venturing out on the wino trail. I've picked up a point of two in looking for wine, but my skills are severely limited and I'm partial to red at the moment. White is just something else that I need to learn at a later date.
On a side note, if I had carte blanche for the evening here is what I would do, actually two scenarios.
1 - I would go the way of the prix fixe with the wine. That's $130 or $85 sans wine, per person.
Manila Clams
Sauteed Veal Sweetbreads
Braised Angus "Beef Pot Roast"
Baked Crepes filled with Milk Chocolate
*Vintners menu changes weekly
2 - While the usual seafood starters generally have sway with me, I would go route of the quail, this is followed by the portabello soup. The main course would have to be the lamb rack and ending with the chocolate truffle cake. $83 per person, not including drinks.
Oak Roasted Sonoma Quail - $16
Portobello Mushroom Bisque "Cappuccino" - $15
Walnut Crusted Mountain Meadows Lamb Rack - $40
Scharffen Berger Chocolate "Truffle Cake" - $12
I'll have a review and update after the meal.
*Last minute change of plans, going to King's Fish House instead. Napa is postponed til her bday. So Pt2 will be later, though I'll have a review for King's.
So she has been to the Napa Rose before, I have not, and I'm a bit unnerved about it. Going here for the first time, not her being here before. I'm a bit shocked, seeing has we've been to "fancy shmancy" places before and she said she was not impressed by them. I'm wanting to expand my "culinary palate" so to speak and there really is nothing on the menu that I see as "ooohhh aahhhh". Now I know that places like this have a changing menu because of the varying ingredients due to seasonal availability, though it is the 2010 Winter menu. They may also have a daily special that is not displayed.
With that said, there were a few items on the menu that piqued my interest, namely the duck and the rack of lamb. Duck I have not had (but thanks to Julie, I am dying to try), and I never get tired of lamb, as long as it is prepared well.
The big item I am interested in is the wine. Thanks to my Dad, I've developed a taste for wine, namely because he gave me a tasty grenache while up in Portland last Summer. Since then I've been more apt to venturing out on the wino trail. I've picked up a point of two in looking for wine, but my skills are severely limited and I'm partial to red at the moment. White is just something else that I need to learn at a later date.
On a side note, if I had carte blanche for the evening here is what I would do, actually two scenarios.
1 - I would go the way of the prix fixe with the wine. That's $130 or $85 sans wine, per person.
Manila Clams
Sauteed Veal Sweetbreads
Braised Angus "Beef Pot Roast"
Baked Crepes filled with Milk Chocolate
*Vintners menu changes weekly
2 - While the usual seafood starters generally have sway with me, I would go route of the quail, this is followed by the portabello soup. The main course would have to be the lamb rack and ending with the chocolate truffle cake. $83 per person, not including drinks.
Oak Roasted Sonoma Quail - $16
Portobello Mushroom Bisque "Cappuccino" - $15
Walnut Crusted Mountain Meadows Lamb Rack - $40
Scharffen Berger Chocolate "Truffle Cake" - $12
I'll have a review and update after the meal.
*Last minute change of plans, going to King's Fish House instead. Napa is postponed til her bday. So Pt2 will be later, though I'll have a review for King's.
FIHRR
EVOO... very few acronyms bring me to a instant boil, but this one does. Ugh, the one thing I have to say about a seething hatred is that is leaves out room for eloquence and capable thought. Understand that it's more of a social hatred, not a personal one if that makes sense. For instance you make not like seafood or you hate a certain actor or other noteworthy social figure, I hate top 40 music for instance.
A good example would be my Dad and his hatred for Hanoi Jane. I distinctly remember a event in which she came on the TV and he went into a tirade, sprinkled liberally with expletives and various other colorful language about her.
My hatred for Rachel Ray would be comparable to this. So many things irritate the fuck out of me about her, her voice, her cutesy wootsy rewording of things, and the fact that she can't cook worth a shit. She fucking Pillsbury cooks* everything!
So yeah.. I hate Rachel Ray.. everyone in my house knows this. I'm half way tempted to stop my email notifications from Cooking.com if I see her face one more time!
*Pillsbury cooks - This would be one who use's Kraft recipes for their everyday cooking. Not that I'm against using a Kraft recipe from time to time, I have a number of Pillsbury recipe books, though I find that maybe 10% of them are worthwhile but even I tweak them a bit. They are decent stepping stones on food prep and have some good reference notes on the Thanksgiving meals. If it wasn't for these I would most likely never have tried cranberry sauce again. A most fucking delicious side for Thanksgiving and one that I crave throughout the year.
A good example would be my Dad and his hatred for Hanoi Jane. I distinctly remember a event in which she came on the TV and he went into a tirade, sprinkled liberally with expletives and various other colorful language about her.
My hatred for Rachel Ray would be comparable to this. So many things irritate the fuck out of me about her, her voice, her cutesy wootsy rewording of things, and the fact that she can't cook worth a shit. She fucking Pillsbury cooks* everything!
So yeah.. I hate Rachel Ray.. everyone in my house knows this. I'm half way tempted to stop my email notifications from Cooking.com if I see her face one more time!
*Pillsbury cooks - This would be one who use's Kraft recipes for their everyday cooking. Not that I'm against using a Kraft recipe from time to time, I have a number of Pillsbury recipe books, though I find that maybe 10% of them are worthwhile but even I tweak them a bit. They are decent stepping stones on food prep and have some good reference notes on the Thanksgiving meals. If it wasn't for these I would most likely never have tried cranberry sauce again. A most fucking delicious side for Thanksgiving and one that I crave throughout the year.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Why I &hearts Julie Powell...
Yet again I'm caught in the web that Julie weaves..
My mother today said I need to take a break. And she may be right, for all that my cooking has not been so strenuous of late. I am feeling much, particularly, the failure these days. It is not turning thirty so much as it is the eventual turning forty, the fear that I will go another decade without doing a goddamned thing worth doing. What have for the past decade, after all? A husband – a divine husband, it must be said, which would be a significant accomplishment if the fact was not that by all rights he ought to divorce me -- and the Julie/Julia Project. Some of you optimists might argue that the best is yet to come, and the sentiment is appreciated. But bitterness is my special gift, and for the moment I choose to wallow in it.
From her post on 4/21/03.
Oh how I know this!! I freaked out at 30 going what the hell have I done with my life and what is the next decade going to be. So in spite of the years of lethargy, ambivalence, discontentment, I'm trying to do something different. Really it is somewhat of a bitch, being lazy is sooo much easier, all I had to do is complain. Now I have to push myself... oh to not get up early to ride a damn bike for 30 minutes.
My mother today said I need to take a break. And she may be right, for all that my cooking has not been so strenuous of late. I am feeling much, particularly, the failure these days. It is not turning thirty so much as it is the eventual turning forty, the fear that I will go another decade without doing a goddamned thing worth doing. What have for the past decade, after all? A husband – a divine husband, it must be said, which would be a significant accomplishment if the fact was not that by all rights he ought to divorce me -- and the Julie/Julia Project. Some of you optimists might argue that the best is yet to come, and the sentiment is appreciated. But bitterness is my special gift, and for the moment I choose to wallow in it.
From her post on 4/21/03.
Oh how I know this!! I freaked out at 30 going what the hell have I done with my life and what is the next decade going to be. So in spite of the years of lethargy, ambivalence, discontentment, I'm trying to do something different. Really it is somewhat of a bitch, being lazy is sooo much easier, all I had to do is complain. Now I have to push myself... oh to not get up early to ride a damn bike for 30 minutes.
Spanish Deli - OC Food Trucks
I've yet to hit a single NEW food truck aside from the more "traditional" ones... click the title to read about some new trucks in OC.
and to think Koji's was parked outside all Summer last year... I need to put them on the menu.
and to think Koji's was parked outside all Summer last year... I need to put them on the menu.
Gastropalooza!
Seeing as any and all other simple "foodie" type url's were taking.. I took this one.. out of inspiration from Julie Powell.. who I believe in her Julie/Julia Project blog stated that she was against such nonsense words. I recommend you read her damn blog by the way. In all honesty I'm slightly enamored with her (to which my wife was a bit suspicious) though I said she needed to thank her blog, as it has given me a new found appreciation for my wife.
However this blog is about all things food related... I think I'm about 10 years too late, oh well, fuck it. Mostly this blog will be about cooking and eating and all that relates to them. Seeing as this is probably my 2nd blog about such endeavors (the first was supposed to be about my experiences at culinary school - but that never happened), however I found a renewed determination from reading the J/J blog and finding out that Julia herself didn't go to culinary school till she was 37, which I will be this year. 37 that is... damn.. so close to 40.. aww crap..
This is not going to be a daily blog or a weekly blog, but a as I feel like it blog, though seeing as I'm a bit focused on a few things at the moment who really knows. I will be writing about some of the more recent events in the coming days as they are probably more relevant. The recent trip to Little Tokyo for the twins b-day, last year's trip to Portland, and things that I have cooked recently and plan to cook.
I'll have some things to refer to - various other blogs that I read from time to time, points of interest on the internet, locally to So Cal and other places that I have visited.
For me food preoccupies soooo much of my daily thought. I'm always reading about it or thinking about it and not too mention my travel plans revolve around it.
Aside from sex.. food is about it.. and maybe a good cocktail or glass of wine.. but that would go back to that food category.
However this blog is about all things food related... I think I'm about 10 years too late, oh well, fuck it. Mostly this blog will be about cooking and eating and all that relates to them. Seeing as this is probably my 2nd blog about such endeavors (the first was supposed to be about my experiences at culinary school - but that never happened), however I found a renewed determination from reading the J/J blog and finding out that Julia herself didn't go to culinary school till she was 37, which I will be this year. 37 that is... damn.. so close to 40.. aww crap..
This is not going to be a daily blog or a weekly blog, but a as I feel like it blog, though seeing as I'm a bit focused on a few things at the moment who really knows. I will be writing about some of the more recent events in the coming days as they are probably more relevant. The recent trip to Little Tokyo for the twins b-day, last year's trip to Portland, and things that I have cooked recently and plan to cook.
I'll have some things to refer to - various other blogs that I read from time to time, points of interest on the internet, locally to So Cal and other places that I have visited.
For me food preoccupies soooo much of my daily thought. I'm always reading about it or thinking about it and not too mention my travel plans revolve around it.
Aside from sex.. food is about it.. and maybe a good cocktail or glass of wine.. but that would go back to that food category.
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