It's like 2 of our favorite things

Jaime Oliver and Chipotle!!
Yum! What a good thing! An odd merging of entities but still! Now if only the promo included the burrito bowl, all rice no beans with spicy carnitas or the soft tacos. mmmmm... chipotle.

Desserts 2.0 - Sweet Rose Creamery

A few weeks ago jess and I planned to have a sensible and healthy dinner since we had both over indulged while in Hawaii (for good reason, t'was the wedding!). And we succeeded, well kinda of... we dined at Paper Fish and both had the set sushi meal that was both lite and pretty good. But... since we were in Brentwood we headed to the Country Mart for a little bit of dolce. Err a lot of dolce.
YUM!!

The display case that greet (TEMPTS!) you upon entry.

Ignore our jiberish,we didn't get the banahner. We instead went with a sundae AND and a mini s'more pie. So much for "sensible" and "healthy". But can you blame us?

summer brunch

Summer has arrived, despite the June-gloom which as been especially gloomy as of late. Anyhow, last weekend, my friend Sessica hosted a wonderful summer brunch at her house. The photos, sadly, do not capture the essence of it all... but picture it. Beverly Hills, a beautiful a poolside table on a sunny day...



Cherry Tomato and Asparagus Salad, Seasonal Fresh Fruit (that was not quiet in season. that was my sour contribution.), Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup & a Praline Topping, and a Crustless Spinach Quiche. I got the recipes after wards from Sessica so I can play grown up one day and recreate the delicious feast. (the quiche recipe, funnily enough is from the LapBand Clinic! and was submitted from the kitchen of Nyphadora Tonks! Really!) So much for growing up, Expecto Patronum to that!

omg, YUM!

image from kfc via msn

Move over iPad, the Double Down from KFC debuts this weekend!!! (there's a counter at kfc.com/doubledown !!!)

I don't think I'll be lining up over night or anything, but I do hope to be tasting the Colonel's original recipe for goodness one day soon. I love KFC (those battered fries, biscuits and cold slaw? YUM!). And how much do we love that this it totally good for us since 1) it's chicken breast! and 2) no carbs! RIGHT?

I have never been one to count calories and honestly don't really know what the numbers mean at all... but from the sounds of this, it really isn't that bad, right?

The Double Down comes either grilled or fried with KFC’s Original Recipe. The fried version has 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and 1,380 milligrams of sodium. The grilled version has 460 calories, 23 grams of fat and 1,430 milligrams of sodium.

Current government guidelines recommend less than 2,300 mg of sodium per day for people over age 2. Most Americans consume about 3,500 milligrams daily. An entire meal should contain no more than 600 milligrams. Acceptable fat is about 65 grams daily on a 2,000 calorie diet.

from msn.com

Doesn't sound so bad to me. Well, if I have a heart attack while eating one, at least I'll die happy.

So close yet so far!

Kogi come back!!!
So I'm sure you all know of the Kogi food truck phenomenon. I've been following them on twitter and keeping my eyes peeled with each trip to LA in the hopes to trying a famed Korean taco... I've come close many a time, but last week they were right in my backyard for lunch.

A coworker and I raced over only to stand in this gnarly line for 45 minutes and barely moved 3 feet. We sadly had to give up since we had to be back at work (whatever!) But this nice man, who's a VP where we work, saw our sad faces and offered to give us some of his. We were too proud to take his food and deprive him of lunch, so just snapped a few photos of his triumph to tie us over until we actually get one.

Kim Chee Quesadilla and the tacos. sigh!

We had to settle on Daphne's for lunch. It's normally quite good, but that day it didn't quite hit the spot.

The Street Gyros (or just mini gyros made to look like taco truck tacos!!!)

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

My grandmother was quite the cook. We used to tell her that she should open up a restaurant, and then my Dad and I would sing the chorus of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant" to my Grandma while she was cooking the Sunday night dinner. (Grandma's "American" name was Alice.) (In fact, my Dad and I used to listen to "Alice's Restaurant" quite frequently on cassette single. The real meaning was lost on ten-year-old me, but as I got older, and we continued listening to the song, I gradually realized that my Dad was ...very much like Steven and Elise Keaton from Family Ties.)

Anyway, one of our favorite meals that Grandma used to make for our Sunday night dinners was corned beef hash patties. Her recipe called for tons of potato, grated onion (because our family liked the flavor of onion, but not the texture), corned beef from a can, and an egg (for binding). I was her kitchen helper and got to grate the onion, mash the potatoes, and make the small patties. She would then pan fry them in her cast iron skillet, and we would eat it with rice (of course), and some vegetable/salad.

When my Grandma got sick and too old to cook Sunday night dinners for us anymore, the torch was passed on to my Mom. In fact, my Mom inherited the old school wooden bat-like instrument that we used to mash the potatoes. She updated the recipe by substituting onion powder for the actual grated onion (do you know how hard it is to get the smell of grated onion juice off your hands?), and recently, has taken to baking the hash in a non-stick pan instead of pan frying the patties. This, she discovered, cut down on the need to use as much oil, as well as a lot of cleanup.

Tonight, I tried my hand at making corned beef hash for our own little Sunday night dinner ritual. I baked it and used onion powder, like my Mom's updated version, but hummed "Alice's Restaurant" as I was mashing the potatoes and mixing the ingredients together with the egg, which brought me back to my Grandma's sunny avocado colored kitchen, and my childhood Sunday night dinners.

(The secret to get the hash crispy while baking is to spread a little olive oil on the bottom of the pan and then brush a little more olive oil on the top of the hash before putting it in the oven.)

I served it with braised cabbage (a nod to Hon's Irish heritage), rice, and topped it with French's fried onion strings....because French's fried onion strings makes everything taste better. (What can I say, I like trashy food.)

And that is my updated, third generation take on Grandma's Corned Beef Hash and Sunday night dinner.

...Walk right in, it's around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track. You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant.

Adventures with quinoa pasta

So I don't know if you recall from my previous post about adding carbs slowing but surely back into my diet even though they are the devil... a delicious devil. But I as mentioned, I had been wanting to experiment with quinoa since it's "good for you" and not as carby as regular pasta. And after my first attempt, I must say it was rather delicious (if I don't say so myself!). I think I'll be doing it again!

So I present to you a Primavera Inspired Quinoa Pasta (just in time for spring!)

Recipe:
-Cook the quinoa pasta being careful to heed the wise words of my friend Bolivia and DO NOT TO OVER COOK IT! =)
it will naturally be on the al dente side, which is a good thing since you'll be tossing it with the sauce later... and save some of the quinoa water. Both water and pasta will be a little on the yellow side, so don't be alarmed
-On a baking sheet roast some veggies of your choice drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper (this time, the assorted roasting of veggies idea for the primavera came via Giada. I used broccoli and green beans.)
-Dice chicken and season with garlic salt, pepper, thyme, basil and chopped garlic.
-Brown in butter and garlic and then add white wine and simmer. Remove chicken
-Reduce the sauce that remains. Add some pasta-water, chopped onions, and more butter and garlic as desired.
-After a few minutes add the pasta to the reduction and chicken too and toss. Turn off heat.
-The add fresh spinach, tomatoes and the roasted veggies. Toss so it is all mixed. The heat of the pasta will soften but not cook the spinach leaving it a wonderfully salad like!
-While tossing, add fresh parsley, thyme and salt to taste.
-Serve with parmesan cheese (I went for the large flakes from Trader Joe's) and chili flakes for a little kick!

A gluten free delight!

A taste if the aina

My coworker just return from a Hawaiian vacation and despite being back in the sunny OC for 5 days, she is still experiencing separation anxiety. So to my benefit and detriment, she made spam musubis (moo soo bees) ie a Hawaiian staple consisting of rice balls wrapped in seaweed with fried spam. Yum. But even though i feel a little gross after wolfing it down, i dont feel too bad about it since she used brown rice. Therefore it was totally healthy!

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it was a long time gone...

We LOVE Korean BBQ and it'd been FOREVER since we had it. And after we had this delectable meal at Shik Do Rak in Irvine (which, btw, was totally cheaper than the places in Korea Town that we used to frequent and just as good if not better) I have to ask, "Why did we wait so long?"

My friend Tae recommended the place and thankfully called ahead for us and added us to the wait list for a table since English isn't really the restaurant strong suit. When we got there, they had our table ready, a phone reservation for J. Kim @ 7:30. Good thing I look Korean.

Highlights:
-Rice and DAIKON wrappers for the meat
-A spicy chili dipping sauce
-The nice staff comes around and refills the side dishes! (usually we're too scared to ask and if we do, we get dirty looks)
-$40 for 2
-AND what we didn't know, but I learned after: instead of rice, you can get the burt rice in water like you get at BCD Tofu House!! Gotta go back for that one!

What a tease! the mouth-watering view of the table next to us that greeted us when we sat.

Adventures with Brown Rice Pasta

YUM! I stumbled upon this phenomenon at Trader Joe's the other day and decided to spice up my meal routine with something a little more carby but just as healthy.

Aglio-olio-esque pasta with seared ahi steaks and roasted asparagus:

Recipe:
-Cook brown rice pasta on the al dente side and cool (note, the cooked pasta itself was naturally more firm than the normal version) and save some of the pasta water.
-On a baking sheet roast asparagus drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper (roasting veggies is a new thing for me from which I got from the queen of the roasters, jessica!)
-Sprinkle salt, pepper, & thyme on both side of ahi steaks and sear in garlic and olive oil in a large pot
-Once seared on both sides, add wihte wine. Simmer and remove
-Reduce the wine-oil juices that remain in the pot. Add some pasta-water, chopped onions, butter and garlic. After a few minutes add tomatoes and lots of fresh basil and simmer, but not for too long.
-Add cooked pasta and toss. While tossing, add fresh cilantro and parsley. And thyme and salt to taste.
Easy! And the brown rice pasta was good! molto al dente.


Back Story:
So I've been avoiding carbs like the plague these last few years and only allowing myself their joys when dining out, trying my best not to cook them (though I've definitely slipped up many times). It was tough at first since I was used to rice at nearly every meal, but replacing the rice with a veggie (preferably a leafy) one proved to be easier that expected.

Anyhow, after watching too many cooking and food shows on TV, I was drawn into this whole quinoa craze of late. (perhaps its not a craze and I'm just learning about it after the fact...) So quinoa (kin-wa, like the Chinese restaurant in Kaneohe that has the sizzling platters!) is a South American grain like food that is high in nutrition, high in protein, LOW in CARBS (whoo hoo!) and gluten free. (additionally, the gluten free aspect caught my attention since my parents have self diagnosed themselves as "semi-gluten-intolerant" recently since they, meaning my mom, thinks that due to their climbing age, pasta makes them gassy. I know, EW.) The granola gal in my office let me try some a while back and its good, it's like couscous in taste and texture.

I vowed to try and make a healthy quinoa pasta for a nice change since I've been in a food rut lately. And during my last trip to Trader Joe's I remembered my vow and decided to live the dream. I found the quinoa pearls, but not the pasta. It was a sad day. I had already bought all the ingredient for the pasta I had envisioned making. So my heart lit up when I discovered Brown Rice Pasta sitting on the shelves. Not quite quinoa, but still a healthy alternative to regular pasta, so I decided to give it a go.

And there you have it.

ps- I found quinoa pasta at a health food store! And while there, I got sage cooking advice from a South American woman... we'll call her Bolivia. Bolivia said that she's eaten it all her life and that when I make it "DON'T over cook it!". She said that part like 5 times. Will post about my adventures with quinoa soon.... and will do my best NOT to over cook it!

EDITED:
Note, my ahi steaks turned out a little over seared and hard... so after my first meal, I just crumbled the steaks and mixed it into the remaining pasta. Just as good!

What I ate this weekend: Part 3 Huckleberry Cafe

Jessica and I had pre-planned a Sunday of yoga or walking or some kind of exercise. Not so much because we knew that were going to be eating a lot the night before, but more to start the year right and for other reasons that I'll let her post about. But we definitely want to sculpt our doughy shapes this ear... err, well, at least *I* do!

But Sunday was cold, there was some sleeping-in and a discussion and iphone searching as to what to do... then the morning came and went and by the time we rolled into the car it was Sunday afternoon and time for lunch. Huckleberry Cafe, just a few minutes from her place was deemed "too bourgey" (spelled that way it looks weird, but think 'boo-zh-ee') by some people. But since they weren't around, that's where we went. (hope that didn't get anyone in trouble!)

It was so cute and so good. And the perfect end to my trilogy of weekend over eating. It was also quite popular and quite the zoo inside. You have to order at a counter and have your food brought to you, but the have this "you must order before you can save a table" policy that helped to speed things up and made for good people watching, especially since there was an enforcer of the rule who ordered people to get in line before sitting. And I must say, the tables turned pretty fast and efficiently this way! Anyhow, the food was ranch fresh, baked in house, bordered organicy in that good Santa Monica way and VERY good! Our morning of exercise and declaration of health by not having McDonald for breakfast turned into Duck Hash, Pesto Pasta, a Prosciutto & Guerre Crossant, a breakfast sandwich WITH aioli and a slice of delicious chocolate cake!!

Things I ate this weekend: Part 2 The Bazaar

And so the marathon continued...
Jess and Kathy took me out the next day, Saturday, for my annual Martin Luther King Jr. weekend meal. (The King and I go way back.) We went to The Bazaar in the new-ish SLS Hotel. The restaurant, that has of late received a ton of accolades coupled with the fact that it was Golden Globe weekend in LA, was nearly impossible to get a table at. Apparently we were on a wait list along with 500 others... Luckily JG, my connection to all things, was able to get us a table! (ps-if given the choice, don't sit on the patio. it overlooks the valet)

THE FOOD WAS AHMAHZING. So tasty and very innovative. I've seen all that fancy molecular gastronomy stuff with foams, suveed meats, and encapsulated liquids on Top Chef, but never had the chance to taste it. And let me tell you, it was damn good. Marcel and Hung are resident Chefs and until last year, so was Michael Votaggio. The space is beautiful and sprawling and in the same vain of other of its sister restaurants with mis-matched chairs and over-sized lamps. After our meal on a white sofa in the Blanca room we were taken to The Patisserie, separate area furnished with high stools, glass tables and pink accents overlooking a buffet (described by both JG and Jess as Marie Antoinette like) of desserts. The desserts we had were creative and good, but the savory stuff is definitely the standout. We have to go back for the tasting menu!!!

And we burnt the calories off the best way we know how... with song!

Things I ate this weekend: Part 1 Anqi

This weekend was a good weekend. Well, some good some bad. The good, I ATE ALL WEEKEND. The bad, I ATE ALL WEEKEND... and now have a spare tire large enough to fit the Flintsotne's car. Seriously. It's totally gross. I'm totally gross. But it's all because... well, lets just say I'm now a year older and have the wrinkles to prove it.

My marathon of weekend meals begin with Anqi by Crustacean on Friday night with Jennifer and Withel. The new Crustacean (of garlic noodles fame) opened recently in Bloomingdale's South Coast Plaza. I'd been once, but just had some drinks and didn't get to try the food. But this time...

It was good. Really good. Think clean modern Vietnamese meets molecular gastronomy (I learned that from Top Chef!). I highly recommend it! Hamahama Oyster Shooters, New Zealand Muscles, Tuna Tacos, Caprese salad, Caramelized Bananas with Chocolate Moose and items I forgot to photo - Garlic Noodles with Lobster, Angel Hair Noodles with Rock Shrimp and the Dragon Fried Rice!

Last lunch of the year

I think I might have posted about these before, but it's worth mentioning again. Chewy black Korean noodles in an icy broth with a side of kalbi... SO good!

The company was good too... Taryn joined but Lauren ditched us for Maui... Whatever, Lauren!
Yu Chun on Kapiolani, next to Mckinley Car Wash.

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Mmmm, malasadas!

A fried doughnut like no other! From Leonard's Bakery on Kapahulu Ave or from one of their many mobile malasadas trucks. Thankfully, one such truck parks at Windward Mall, near my house in Kaneohe, almost daily! I've searched for these gems from the gods in LA with no luck... But today heard a rumor the King's Hawaiian Bakery in Gardena has them on the weekends?!?
And introducing malasadas with li hing powder! They were pretty good! And apparently there is a new version made from taro that's purple on the inside and supposedly broke-da-mouth (aka delicious). I'm on the lookout!

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Cold night, hot pot

Luckily I had preplanned to have nabe or Japanese hot pot for dinner this week. It was the perfect warming meal for the chilly 40 degree night we're having down this way!


Usually made in a big pot over a burner on the table and eaten family style, I've adopted my own nabe-for-one technique (for which, there is actually a Japanese word for, hitorinabe, which kind of has a pitiful undertone to it...sigh!) There are regional flavors and ingredients, but basically you throw a bunch of vegetables and meats into a boiling soup and then dip in various sauces.

This time, I made a miso based soup and for the meat, made ground turkey balls (an adaptation of I learned from a friend's ex while in Japan). For then dipping sauces, I had ponzu, a citrus soy, and a non-traditional garlic chili sauce. Not the prettiest picture, but warm, hearty and healthy!

bring me a Sprinkles any day

So one would think that the place that started the whole cupcake craze would have good cupcakes, right? WRONG!



After the Fatty Crab dinner, we walked to Magnolia Bakery. Which is very cute (and in the cutest neighborhood! is that the area called the west village? Bleeker? Anyhow, lots of shops including Marc Jacobs that open until 10pm! And the Jack Spade where the whole Top Banana incident went down.)

looks good, right?! looks can be deceiving as my cupcake was no bueno.

Anyhow, I was warned so I was a little prepared to not to blown away. My red velvet was tiny, $3, covered in a so-so whip cream and DRY! What's up with that?! However Matt recommended the banana pudding, that was in one word bahNAHnas. Wonder why there's not a country wide banana pudding craze?!?

mmmm. shut up right now. this was bananas amazing! so good in fact that someone totally stole matt's from his fridge!

Fatty Crab

Totally cute name right? Another fantastically delicious NYC meal.

The food is South East Asian (I know!), which surprised me since I though it was going to be like a New England clam bake for some reason. But anyhow, I think what made it so delicious was that everything was in flavors that I've not really experienced or eaten a lot of. It was like Thai or Vietnamese, but more exotic and a hint of spice. Matt and I shared like 5 things and that was PLENTY. And funnily enough, we didn't even get the crab, even thought is was Crabby Monday (aka all you can eat chili crab special).

Meal highlights:

Crispy Fried Pork and Watermelon Salad:


Fatty Sliders with Beef and Pork


We also had Lo Si Fun (a delicious fat noodles in a sauce) and Spare Ribs = so good! (And note the chicken wings were good, but just ok).

Thank goodness that there's lots of walking when in NY!

If it's good enough for the president...

Five Guys Burgers & Fries

Finally got to try it! Val and I had searched the boonie of PA and didn't see any... Tho we had heard that it was out there... Anyhow, found one! Right near soho. Omg it was good. I'm a total west coaster and luv me my In 'N Out, but this bacon burger was so much better than my last double double... And the fries too! And now I KNOW Obama has good "taste"! (sorry... I had to)

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Mmm mmm Keller

A little morning coffee and dolce from Buchon bakery (one floor below is Per Se where jess and I dined previously and got a little wasted! Actually a lot wasted... we took turns passing out at the table. note to self... wine pairings not the best idea for people with low tolerance for alcohol.)

That was one good mocha and raisin pastry, even though I'm not the biggest raisin fan.

Soon we'll have Buchon in LA! I wonder if it'll ever make it to the OC? doubtful...

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