A Couple of Restaurant Recommendations from the Weekend

First of all, Huckleberry Cafe in Santa Monica (11th and Wilshire) has, I think, the best breakfast in Santa Monica.  While it gets crowded, the staff is efficient and the homemade pastries are so beautiful.  The sweet bread pudding (made with different fruits) is absolutely delicious – sweet and rich – and it comes in a giant bowl perfect for sharing.  Also, the breakfast items include creative combinations and are made with farmer’s market produce.  I had the quinoa with butternut squash, spinach, pine nuts, and sunchokes topped with sunny-side up eggs.  (Also, this is the site of my recent Arnold Schwarzenegger sighting … more on that later.)

I also have to give a shout out to Tony’s Italian Steakhouse on the Sunset Strip (at Sunset and Alta Loma).  I didn’t eat there, but they have a fabulous  happy hour (which I believe ends at 8 PM every night) featuring $5 martinis.  Let me tell you, this was the best martini I have ever had.  I ordered the French Market Lemonade, and it was the perfect combination of sweet & tart.  Others raved about the chocolate martini and the Key Lime Pie martini.  They also offer $5 appetizers.  The ambiance is extremely classy and pretty and the wait staff is really nice and accommodating.  This is a fairly new addition to the Strip, and I will definitely be back.

Cooking in Bulk

I was always a big fan of dinner.  It used to be my major meal of the day, and the meal I spent the most time preparing and enjoying.  And then, I began a grad program that is entirely made up of night classes.

So I don’t really … eat dinner now.  Which is something I never thought I’d say, so profound is my love for dinner.  I opt for a large lunch (with a dessert usually) and grab a snack before class (and sometimes after).  I also don’t spend as much time cooking as I once did.  I really enjoy cooking and when I worked a regular 9 – 6, I’d start Googling interesting recipes at around 4:30 and stop at the market on the way home for ingredients.  (I never really do grocery shopping in bulk.)

These days, however, I am so busy and keep such weird hours that I basically consider it a success if I make one vat of food per week and eat a little every day to supplement my frozen meals and take-out.  I like to eat healthy and this is probably the only way I can insure that I eat vegetables that are not pre-cooked in a Lean Cuisine.

This type of cooking can have many drawbacks.  Sometimes I will make something that I get sick of or something that never tastes quite as good upon reheating.  However, this week, my vat of food was a huge success and it was one of the easiest I’ve ever prepared:  pasta salad.  I cooked an entire box of whole wheat rotini and mixed it with various veggies, black beans, and threw some lite Italian dressing on it.

 

It tasted great … even three days later! And is totally healthy and filling (lots of fiber in the pasta and veggies).

Does anyone else have any healthy cooking-in-bulk suggestions?

Best Pizza in LA (or at least on the West Side)

LA is not known for having delicious pizza.  New York, okay.  New York knows pizza.  That slightly oily, cheesy, foldable, thin crust is difficult to top.

However, good pizza can be found in LA. (Not so much good bagels; I was told recently that this is because bagels are never boiled here as they are in NYC.)  But LA pizza is predictably a little more … well, LA than NY pizza.  Like, I was at my favorite pizza shop today and they actually sell salad pizza, which is basically salad with lettuce and avocados and tomatoes and whatnot on pizza crust.  It actually looks really tasty.

Anyway, the pizza place of which I speak – my personal favorite – is Abbot Kinney Pizza.  The crust is bagel-style and covered with poppyseeds and quite hearty (especially when accompanied by the red roasted pepper or ranch dippins sauces), and the gourmet-style pizzas range from the aforementioned salad pizza to tequila lime chicken to four onion.  Tonight I went with the Greek pie:

 

I know some people think Abbot Kinney Pizza is overrated, but I really love it, precisely because it does have slightly different pizza flavor than I am used to.  It’s kind of earthy-tasting.  I love it.

On public speaking

I am in a public speaking club at school and I really like it a lot.  Three people give prepared speeches every week, three people evaluate their speeches, and there are also extemporaneous speeches where people are put on the spot with random questions that they have to answer.  I really enjoyed giving my prepared speech, but the extemporaneous speeches can be terrible.  Tonight, the question I had to answer was something like, “So we’ve had bird flu and swine flu … what will be the next big flu outbreak?”  and I just started rambling on about … I don’t even know what.  Words were coming out of my mouth, but I’m not entirely sure what they were and I KNOW they didn’t make any sense.

However, that said, it’s good practice because sometimes in life, you really DO have to talk out of your ass and it’s nice to be in an environment where you can get comfortable doing that.  Furthermore, it’s also sort of helpful because it helps people get over their embarassment over saying stupid things.  I mean, I know whatever I said tonight was stupid, but it also does not matter that much.  In my younger days, I would probably lose sleep over saying something stupid in front of a crowd of people, but now I know that it’s really not worth stressing over so much.  There are more important things to lose sleep over.

I also really like it because it helps you learn more about people.  People share stories that are funny and interesting and I love hearing about other peoples’ lives and the paths that brought them to the places they are today.

Food Find of the Day:  Edy’s Slow-Churned Pumpkin Ice Cream.  Amazing.

 

The Omnivore’s Hundred

A British food blogger came up with this list of 100 things that he feels that every omnivore should try in his or her life, and since I love food, I thought it was a fun game…

All of the items I have eaten are bolded with the items I would not consider eating italicized.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (No, but I’d be interested in trying it)
6. Black pudding (I tried this in England and would probably never eat it again.)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (Don’t like it.)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J Sandwich
14. Aloo Gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (I had to look this up, and found that it is a cheese from France, which means I have probably tried it?  But can’t recall.)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (No, but this sounds cool.)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (No, thank you!)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper. (No, but I will take this as a challenge.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna caude
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (again in England – yum!)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (I would try them if pressed, but only cooked.)
43. Phaal (I had to look this up, and since I have eaten a lot of British Indian food, it seems like something I have probably eaten, but I will not count it.  I love hot curries, so am intrigued.)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/€80/$120 or more
46. Fugu (No.)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly Pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (I don’t know what this is.)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess fruit pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (love!)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (Do Restaurant Week menus count?)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (I had to look this up, and it sounds amazing.)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
100. Snake

69% – Not bad, but I have some eating to do.

The Most Delicious Thing in the World

Most people find themselves adapting to the tastes of those in their environment.  I don’t even think it’s a conscious effort in most cases.  We just see people enjoying a certain food/beverage/activity and think, “Hmm.  That looks interesting,” try it for ourselves, and then all of a sudden, we’re one of the masses.

For example, I was never really a beer drinker before living in Boston, and then, was introduced to the fact that Samuel Adams has an ale for every season.  There is light and lemony Summer Ale for lazy June nights or (best of all) Pumpkin Ale for the crisp New England falls.  Anyway, people in Los Angeles don’t really care about good ole Sam that much, and I think I reveal myself as a transplant every time I ask for it in a bar.

One thing Angelenos do enjoy?  Frozen yogurt.  When I lived in LA several years ago, I was obsessed with Penguin’s Frozen Yogurt. There was a Penguin’s on the corner of my old street in West LA and I would often takes walk there to imbibe in a delicious sundae-that-is-not-actually-a-sundae.  Chocolatey goodness without the guilt! 

Since I moves back to California, my frozen yogurt obsession has resurfaced in full force, but in my absence, a new type of froyo has emerged that is LACED WITH CRACK. (Not really, but it’s so addictive that it may as well be.) And it can be found at a dealer known as Pinkberry. 

When I first tried Pinkberry’s frozen yogurt, I didn’t even like it.  Now I love it so much that I cannot even imagine what it must feel like to not enjoy Pinkberry.  It’s like not liking … coffee or air or John Hughes movies.  I have no idea what they put in this stuff.  Some people say it’s not even yogurt.  According to the website, “Pinkberry is swirly goodness. It’s a love affair with chilly bliss.”  Usually, I would scoff that this description doesn’t really elucidate what Pinkberry actually is, but you know … YES, it IS a love affair with chilly bliss!  It IS swirly goodness!  I can’t think of a better way to describe it. 

Not only is Pinkberry amazingly delicious, but there are only 100 calories per half cup, which makes it a favorite with all of the body and health-conscious types here in southern California. I was once at a Pinkberry eagerly awaiting my turn to order, while the woman in front of me asked the girl behind the counter, “So … are there more calories in yogurt chips or chocolate chips?  I mean, which one is HEALTHIER?  How many grams of sugar are in chocolate chips?”  (I bit back my own response: “Try FRUIT, lady. I guarantee you strawberries are healthier than chocolate chips.”)

If you live in LA or New York City and haven’t tried Pinkberry, go.  Go now.  Start with a plain with strawberries and kiwi.  Oh, and they have mochi – you just have to ask for it. I recently decided to cut back on my Pinkberry consumption, not because it was too caloric or too expensive, but because I thought that if I ate it too much, I’d lose my taste for it, and I cannot imagine anything sadder.