Santa Monica Foodie Cutie

Taiyaki for BREAKFAST

2008-09-19T13:02:00.001-07:00

"Whatcha doing Mr. Volcano?"

"I'm filling my taiyaki with sausagicity!"

(if that make no sense click here...or for a sillier version try this one)

Hehe, one of treats I miss the most from Japan is definitely taiyaki. Tai, also known as snapper, is a kind of fish and are considered good luck in Japan. Taiyaki though is not grilled fish but a yummy fish shaped waffles filled most often with sweetened red bean goodness. These delicious treats can often be found at festivals or sometimes random little stalls around town. When I was living in Kakegawa I used to pass a super cute little Taiyaki stall while walking to work every day. It never failed to bring a little smile to face.

Unfortunately I have yet to find a place in LA to buy freshly made taiyaki (if you know of one, please let me know) so I figured the best way to satisfy my craving would be to make them myself. Due to the wonders of the internet, I was able to find a simple taiyaki maker online. For some reason, it was from Korea (is taiyaki popular in Korea?) and all the instructions were in Korean. This wasn't much of a problem since the taiyaki maker was just a simple old school waffle iron with snapper-shaped molds. Just heat, fill, close and flip (repeat if desired).

For a good recipe and write up check out Anime Blog. I, however, am a little bit lazy (while I love to cook, I hate to clean) and after reading about Batter Blasters on a few blogs thought that might be the perfect easy solution for making quick and easy taiyaki. I was a little nervous at first but it actually turned out great. Since I love anko (sweetened red bean paste) I first made them traditional style with the sweetened bean paste filling. It took me a couple tries to get the temperature and the timing just right but I was turning out yummy taiyaki in no time.
The morning after my super successful Taiyaki night, Dave had the idea to make a version of “pigs in blanket” or as I like to say “soy in a snapper.” Using the batter blasters and frozen vegan sausages these were simple to make and fun to eat. What a wonderful way to start off the day!!What would you want in your Taiyaki??

You down with RFD - yeah you know me ^_~

2008-08-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have been dying to try Real Food Daily in Santa Monica since, well, probably since the first time I ever saw it about 4 years ago (back when it was next to Blueberry - a super yum breakfast place that is not longer *tear*). I'm not sure why I put it off for so long but if nothing else good comes of my little vegan experiment at least it finally got me into this delicious restaurant. One thing I hate about many "vegan" restaurants (i.e. California Vegan) is that the majority of the entrees are full of funky fake meat products. Rather than offering creative dishes featuring the amazing flavors of natural vegan products they just have standard dishes made with smeat in place of real meat. No worries at RFD though, they have a menu packed of interested and fresh creative dishes. So many that it is hard make a decision, but no worries, the food here is definitely worth a trip back.

We started off the meal with the Nori Maki small plate. I don't usually get appetizers but I had been wanting to try these for a while. I just love the look of brown rice sushi, it projects an image wholesome yumminess. Also, as a sushi fiend, I'm taking every chance I can to get a little sushi fix during this vegan experiment. In proper Japanese style, the sushi came beautiful presented.
I especially liked the leaf shaped wasabi blog. I love details like that. The taste was decent, I especially liked the addition of umeboshi, which is one of the flavors I miss teribley from Japan. It could have done without the addition of avacado. Maybe my year in Japan had caused me to question the use of avacodo in sushi especially right next to the umeboshi. Overall, it was pretty good but I'm not sure if it would win in a head to head with the brown rice sushi rolls from M Cafe though and I must admit it not even in the same league as real sushi from places like Echigo.

Dave got the tac-o'the town, which is actually, according to some online interview, Moby's favorite dish (they should like totally mention that on the menu ^_^).

I can understand why, the tacos were delicious. I was a little surprised that they were hard shell tacos but they totally reminded me of taco night from when I was little. The seasoned seitan mixture that the shells were stuffed with had a great Mexican flavor. Unfortunately the beans and rice paled in comparison. They tasted completely unseasoned and did nothing to enhance the taco. While a little disappointing, the two tacos packed enough flavor to carry the dish and were filling enough on their own.

Not to brag or anything but the star dish of the night was without a doubt the entree that I ordered (you're the winner...^_^).
I was a little apprehensive about ordering since I really wanted something with tempeh it but I am so glad that I did. Not only was the presentation stunning but every component had its own unique flavor that was good alone and also in combination....I couldn't stop eating it! The title of the dish was, in honor of the olympics, Go for the Gold and is described as: Spicy pistachio crusted tofu, caramelized golden beet and citrus sauce, sauteed black kale and zucchini, creamy garlic mashed sweet potatoes, phyllo crisps. Mmmm...it was so delicious I am inspired to try to make the Pistachio Crusted Tofu recipe off of the FatFreeVegan blog...yum!!

Overall I was super satisfied...way more than I thought I would be. This along with M Cafe de Chaya is mos def one of my new favs in LA!

The Good: fresh, natural ingredients, creative recipes, beautiful presentation, new specials every couple of weeks

The Bad: the rice had no spice! sushi was only "okay", a little pricey

The Yummy: the tacos were yum, and my special dish was delish

My Venture into Veganism

2008-08-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I have finally jumped on the vegan bandwagon and wahoo! what a fun ride it has been. First I must say that being vegan for only 3 days has given me a new found appreciation for anyone who engages in this lifestyle. I read a ton of vegan blogs but never truely realized how much effort it takes to eat a vegan diet. Of course it also causes me to ask the question of why, but that question has been answered on many sites around the web so I don't feel any reason to expound apon it here. While I don't fully agree with all of the veganistic ideals I still have an appreciation for people who can feel so strongly about something to modify there behavior in such an extreme way. And super duper props to anyone who started years ago before all these (yucky) fake smeat and cheeze products were out there.

Let me note that I am doing this more as an experiment and have no plans to continue this diet for the rest of my life. (I was inspired by a meat-eating friend who took on vegan challenge and ate a vegan diet for a few month) Right now, my plan is to eat vegan at least through the end of August. Already, adopting a vegan diet has made me realize how much milk and fish products I used to eat. It will be interesting to see how this affects my overall health. I'm hoping eating this way will force me to cook more often and try some of the yummy recipes I am always finding. Not only does eating this way give me a new apprciation for vegans but for anyone who make drastic changes in their diet. I converted to vegetarianism almost 15 years ago. Perhaps being younger and not set in my ways made it much easier but I don't remember it being that difficult of a change.

Expect to see many more posts about vegan recipes and of course some vegan ice cream! I hope this will last much longer than my little south beach excursion (well, actually now that I think about it, it already has!)

Bye Bye South Beach...nice visit (well not really)

2008-07-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well...two days in and I already fell off the bandwagon. It was an interesting experiment but just a little too tough for me. The first day was not too bad; actually I wasn't hungry most of the day and didn't really feel like I was missing anything. By the end of the day though I had almost no energy and went to bed early. Tuesday morning I woke up starving and was so weak I could barely pull myself out of bed. I started my morning off with a scoop of peanut butter just to give me the strength to make a pot of coffee. After my mushroom and spinach omelet I was feeling pretty good and spent much of the afternoon giving a friend a walking tour of Santa Monica with no problems. Then came the downfall...I got home around 4PM and was starving. My head was spinning and I felt quite faint. Not sure what to do, I started shoving various protein and veggie items into my mouth but nothing seemed to take away my symptoms. All I could do was just mope lying on the couch. I couldn't even muster up enough energy to read. The rest of the evening was shot. While tasty, dinner was quite unfulfilling and nothing could seem to pull me out of my funk. My bf fell asleep at 9PM but I was in such pain I couldn't even sleep. Finally around 10:30 I went to bed and had crazy dreams all about food. I had such hunger pains that I actually got out of bed in the middle of the night and ate peanut butter and string cheese from the fridge. Now that is not normal behavior.

While for some people I believe that the South Beach Diet might be a great way to lose a few pounds. My parents did it and seemed to be okay. I think I am going to skip to a more phase 2 like plan. Whether it is because I am almost vegetarian, don't have a lot of weight to lose, or some other reason, a lower carbohydrate does not suit my body chemistry.

Anyways...on a happier note I am super excited because after months of searching I finally got a job! Among many other things, one of the reasons I am so excited is that I get to start making myself bentos!! Yay! I bought a few super cute bento boxes in Japan and can't wait to put them to some good use. Look forward to some fun and excitng bento box posts!

Cheers!

Foodie Cutie takes a trip...to South Beach

2008-06-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

As a life long dieter it is funny that I have never actually gone on a "real" diet. I have always just obsessed, read diet books, created my own diets and counted calories on my own. I packed on a couple pounds while in Japan and then in my return to American cuisine packed on a couple more and have found it so hard to lose any! So I have decide to jump on the low-carbohydrate (I refuse to use that other word, c&*b) bandwagon and try out the South Beach Diet. It might be a little tough since I have a super sharp sweet tooth, but I think it might be an interesting experience as well. Wish me luck! Gambarimasu!

Valentine's Day Goodies: Heart Shaped Sushi and Ramen

2007-02-19T16:01:00.000-08:00

I would consider myself to be pretty low key about Valentine's Day. I'm not really much into cards, flowers or even...gasp...jewlery (it'll just get lost in my room ^_^;); however when I spotted an ad in the Mitsuwa flyer for heart shaped sushi I knew that my Valentines day wouldn't be complete without it!! Luckily Dave is such a sweetie and graciously drove me all the way to Little Tokyo in downtown LA on Saturday to pick some up. The package was just so cute, I could hardly calm myself down while in the grocery store. It came with four pieces, two spicy tuna and two some kind of mild fish. They were made using green and pink rice paper instead ofnori. While the rice paper added nice color and made the sushi easy to bite, I really missed the toasty flavor that comes from the nori. The sushi itself was alright, the rolls were a little big making it hard to eat but it was still a ton of fun. We made some miso soup and steamed veggies to have on the side and served it with some cold sake. It was a great little Valentine's celebration!

Then, on Sunday night, I got to have my first taste of Real Ramen (or at least a real as it comes in Southern California ^_^). My boyfriend has been to handful of different ramen places Los Angeles and had nothing but good things to say about Asahi, a small Ramen house located in the little Japanese area along Sawtelle. This little strip of Sawtelle is super cute with lots of Japanese restaurants and other businesses. It's one of those parts of the city that I don't go to very often, but every time I do, I think "I should go here more often." Hopefully I will get a chance to try the cream puffs from Papa Beard before I leave!Mmmm...cream puff....anyway, that's for another post...back to Sunday night ramen...There was a small wait to get in to the restaurant, which in my opinion is always a good sign! Asahi was very clean and had some nice decorations giving it a nice ambiance without overdoing it. As soon as you are seated you presented with a little appetizer of spicy sesame marinated cucumbers, very yum!

The menu was pretty straight forward, basically ramen and then some other non noodle dishes. Many of the ramen dishes came with pieces of pork but there were a couple with out. The main reason I haven't tried ramen is that it is almost always made with pork or chicken stock. Since I don't eat meat, I usually avoid soups made with meat stock, but I decided to make an exception forramen . However, while I will allow the stock to be made from meat, I don't think I would be able to take big pieces of meat floating around in there. I ordered thewakame ramen , one of few non meat choices, and added a boiled egg since I heard that it is really yummy with the boiled egg and plus, it looks prettier in the pictures that way. Dave I guess felt like picking up the slack for mymeatlessness and ordered Chashu ramen which is just Shoyu ramen with extra pork.

As with most ramen places, the portions were huge! There were plenty of noodles but what I liked the best were the toppings. Mine came with spring onions, a generous portion ofwakame seaweed, sprouts, bamboo shots, and a hard boiled egg which had been cut in half. Each of the toppings added a unique taste and texture to the soup. I loved the sweetness of the bamboo shots and the crunch from the bean sprouts. The seaweed was soft and slippery with a mild bitter flavor. I especially liked the boiled egg. I had fun getting a little yolk on my spoon and then letting it sop up some of the buttery broth and then taking a big bite. The flavor combination was just amazing. The broth was rich and soothing and the noodles had a nice flavor and bite to them. Since this is my firstramen place I have little to compare with but I would definitely recommend highly recommend Asahi. This ramen experience was a lot fun and will definitely not be my last. I haven't quite perfected my slurping technique, but I'm not worried...I'll have plenty of chances to practice! Can't Wait!!!

Super Update

2007-01-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have been a lazy bum...Since class and interviews have been over for a while I don't even have a good excuse for not posting other than I haven't gotten around to it. Well, I also haven't really made any thing worth posting about recently which is only another example of why I have been a lazy bum. But that's okay, if we fall down we can just get up again so cheers to a new year of blog posts,wahoo!! Anyway, before I get started on anything new I just wanted to do a quick recap of exciting foodie events since my last post.

Thanksgiving: My friend Dan invited Dave and me up to his house in Santa Barbara. OMG, they have such a beautiful view from their backyard and we all watched the sun set into the ocean. It was truly stunning. The food wasdelich , Dan is a great cook. My favorite was a simple dish he made with roasted beets, goat cheese and toasted walnuts. Since it was also my birthday I made a Pumpkin Cheese"birthday"cake using recipe I found in Cooking Light. It was super simple and turned out great. The texture was nice and creamy and it had a great pumpkin flavor. It was hard to believe that it was low fat. I would definitely make it again. My friendUlea made her amazing Tiramisu which was super yumm . While I definitely missed some of the traditional dishes I share with my family (especially since my mom does a stunning Thanksgiving spread), it was a fun day with lot of great food and great friends.

Birthday Dinner: Since my birthday fell on Thanksgiving technically the post above would be my "birthday dinner", but the next night, Dave took me to this Japanese restaurant that I have been dying to try called Kiriko. It's located on Sawtelle in that area which has become like a new Little Tokyo (maybe Little Osaka or something...). Kiriko was a lot smaller than I had imagined, but very cute and cozy. Dave and I had a little table next to the window which was nice andromatical. The menu was a little challenging since I didn't really recognize any of the dishes. It was probably the most Japanese place I have been to. We started off with a couple pieces of sushi which were excellent. I would come back here just for the sushi. Dave ordered 白身魚のカルパッチョ(White fish carpacchio) which is described on the menu as "Thin sliced white fish of the day on top of Julienne vegetables." It was definitely not what we expected. The dish was served cold and the fish was served raw and sliced very thin. It was stunningly plated with a the red vegetables making a flower like image on top of the fish (I think Dave took a pic, I'll have to get it from him). It had a strong lemon flavor which Dave didn't like. I thought the flavor was rather interesting, complex, and quite enjoyable even though I'm not a huge fan of lemon either. For my dish, I ordered 梅紫蘇しらすパスタサラダ (Ume shiso shirasu pasta salad, Chilled Angel hair with arugula, sour plum and daikon radish and Shirasu (boiled baby sardine) fish). This dish was actually warmer than than Dave's. I was a little nervous about the sardines but they were actually really good. They were white and stringy and the flavor kind of reminded me of crab. It had a light dressing, which pulled together the sourness of the plum and peppery arugula perfectly. While I really enjoyed the experience at Kiriko and thought it was a lot of fun I think it was just a bit out of Dave's comfort zone.

Christmas: I spent Christmas in Vegas with my family. It was a lot of fun but I found the food in Vegas to be overpriced and not overly impressive. My favorite place by far was Mon Ami Gabi, which was a little french Bistro in the Paris casino. It had an awesome location right across from the Bellagio, and made the best drink, an amazing pomegranate martini. On our first full day in Vegas, my family and I stopped in there for an early afternoon cocktail and a little bite to eat. We split a cheese plate which featured 3 different kinds of cheese plus apple slices and toasted walnuts. It was super yum and went great with the mini baguettes the restaurant provided. My family enjoyed our experience there so much that we made reservations to come back for a mid afternoon lunch on Christmas day. The weather on Christmas was just beautiful and we managed to get a table outside so could we could enjoy the sun and watch the Bellagio fountain show across the street. The food was very good but not super memorable (I had seared tuna nicoise salad). We also had dinner off the strip at a place called Rosemary's which was really nice and had the Christmas Buffet at the Mirage. My family and I had a fabulous time and the highlight of the trip was with out a doubt getting to watch the Cirque Du Soliel production LOVE. Thanks mom for setting us this wonderful trip!!

My future goals include dining at Josie's and also attempting to make some pumpkin diafuku. Yum!!

Pumpkin Sandwich Cookies

2006-11-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

For the last few weeks I have been dying to bake, but have just been too busy between school, work, and completing my Teach in Japan applications. However I had 2 exams last week so once those were over I thought I would take advantage of some free time to get some fall baking in. Pumpkin flavored treats have been my obsession this fall season (especially Trader Joe's pumpkin butter!) so I knew I wanted to bake some kind of pumpkin cookies. While cruising through the food blogasphere (bleh..I hate that word ^_^;) I came across these "oreo" chocolate sandwich cookies on TunaTost. They looked so tasty and cute that I was inspired to use the same idea and make pumpkin sandwich cookies, kind of like a pumpkin oreo. Doing a quick search for pumpkin cookie recipes I found one on Bakingsheet which sounded good and for the filling I decided to use the same filling recipe from Landolakes.com that TokyoAstroGirl from Tunatoast used for her inspiring oreo cookies.

Since I usually try to cook healthy I did feel a bit guilty while buying all the butter for these cookies. The dough was a cinch to put together but the oven in my boyfriends apartment isn't quite the best quality which resulted in some of the cookies burning on the bottom before being cooked throughout. I had meant to pick up an oven thermometer and will definitely be doing so before my next baking adventure. Only one batch was burnt really bad though.The cookies were tasty but the pumpkin to be as pronounced as I wanted. This may have been because I added a little extra of the spices and a dash of ginger since ginger one of my favorite flavors. The extra spices may have been a little overpowering and inhibited the pumpkin flavor from being able to really shine. The texture was not too cakey like some pumpkin cookies tend to be but was still nice and soft. The filling turned out really good and helped give a little more sweetness and interest to the cookie. Since pumpkin cookies are nice and soft they make perfect sandwich cookies, they were almost like mini cakes, how cute!! Overall I was satisfied with the results but I think I have more fun when I don’t bake Paula Dean style (i.e. lots and lots of butta). The challenge of trying to make bad for you stuff somewhat healthy but still super yummy makes cooking a little more interesting. I mean, almost anything can taste good when you have 2 sticks of butter in it, but making something taste good on a tablespoons of flax seeds blended with water till frothy is another story...plus then you don't have to feel so guilty polishing off a plate of 'em.

here are links to the recipes:
Pumpkin Cookies
Creamy Vanilla Filling

All you have to do is make the cookies, minus the chocolate (although you could try it with, a little chocolate never hurts). It helps to try and make them round and about the same size. After the cookies have cooled, make the filling. Then use a pastry bag to dollop a little frosting on the back of a cookie and press it on another to make a yummy yummy pumpkin sandwich cookie. Happy Baking!!

Japanese Kit Kats II - An Nin & Uji-Kintoki Milk

2006-11-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed my Japanese kit kat experience so much last time that I bought some more from the same guy on ebay. While I have to admit that getting candy off of ebay does seem a little weird to me, it is also a lot of fun. It is great getting to try special edition flavors from the other side of the world. This time I ordered a regular size An Nin Dessert Kit Kat bar and a bag of Uji-Kintoki Milk Mini kit kats.

The An Nin Dessert Kit Kat was absolutely amazing, probably my favorite so far. An Nin Dofu is a sweet-almond-tofu dessert that is eating in China. The taste was definitely very sweet but also very complex. The flavor is a little hard to describe accurately and it kept changing making want to take more and more bites. At first it tasted almost like bubble gum, but definitely more tart. The almond flavor reminded me of the spritz cookies my mom used to bake made with almond extract. I really love the texture of the "chocolate" in the Japanese kit kats. Its much smoother and creamier than the American variety and the wafer is much lighter too. My boyfriend really enjoyed this flavor. He said that it reminded him of something from when he was little, maybe it was spritz cookies as well. As with all the other Japanese kit kats I've had, it tasted best when chilled. The blue box packaging is so pretty! I really love how the regular sized bars come with two individually wrapped pieces.

The other bag bag of Uji-Kintoki Milk Mini kit kats are supposed to be Kakigori, a dessert consisting of shaved ice topped with sweet azuki beans , green tea and milk. While this variety sound very complicated, these kit kats tasted exactly like the regular green tea flavor. The only difference was that the creme between the wafers was red and not green. I guess that is supposed to be azuki bean, but it didn't change the flavor at all.Since I really enjoyed the machakats it is not a bad thing that they tasted the same. However since I could have just bought a bag of the regular green tea flavor from Mitsuwa for about half the price, its seems kind of silly to have bought them off of ebay. Oh well, I still enjoyed them very much and the bag is much prettier (its all about the packaging ^_^). Hmmm...I wonder what new fall flavors they have...

GOTM: Confetti Quinoa

2006-10-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Mmmm...I forgot to make a post about GOTM (GOTY???) #2, but I must say it was really yummy. I guess I will just have to make it again so I can do a proper post about it. However since this post is about the third dish I made with quinoa I will go ahead and consider this GOTM #3. Every time I cook with Quinoa I grow more fond of its yummy nutty flavor and interesting texture. This dish was inspired both by one of my favorite Amy Meals and also a post by Megan the Vegan and it was also probably the most successful dish that I have made with out a recipe. I first cooked the quinoa in some veggie broth (Whole foods brand) which really gave it a delicious rich flavor. While the quinoa was cooking, I steamed some broccoli and fried up some purple onion, orange pepper and mushrooms. I dashed some 21 seasoning stuff from Trader Joes, a little salt, and some pepper into the onion mixture. Once the the quinoa was done cooking, I gently mixed in the broccoli and the onion mixture. This dish was so beautiful and colorful, I wish I had my camera with me. Oh well I guess you will just have to picture the purple from the onion, the crisp green from the broccoli and the bright orange from the pepper all juxtaposed against the light tan of the qunioa. Oh such a picture of health! I served the quinoa with some catfish that I had poached in white wine (and of course with a glass of the same wine). The meal came together in about 30 minutes and was so delicious and healthy!

San Fran Part 1: Veggie Paradise at Millennium

2006-09-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

I love interesting gourmet cuisine. However since I am a vegequarian, I often only get one or two choices off a menu. For our first night in San Francisco my bf wanted to have a nice meal. We came across this vegetarian restaurant on the Internet called Millennium. I was so excited when I looked at the menu. All vegetarian dishes, prepared in interesting ways with creative flavor combinations and beautiful avant garde cuisine presentations. I couldn’t wait to try it.

We arrived at the restaurant a little before our reservations and ordered a couple drinks at the bar. They have an really interesting selection of mixed drinks made with fresh juices. They were out of the tequila for the drink that I wanted but the bartender offered to make me a muddled melon margarita. I was so glad I went with her suggestion. It was made with real cantaloupe which went really well with the tequila. We were eventually settled at our table. I new this was a restaurant I would enjoy went the bread was served with a lentil spread rather than butter. Is one restaurant a good enough reason to move cities?

I was having a little difficulty deciding what to order, since I had so many choices (yay). Everything sounded so good. The two that really stood out to me wer the Yube Roulade (stuffed chard, farro & French lentils, morel, caramelized onion & Porcini reduction, roasted chanterelles, sautéed Broccoli di Cicco with currants & pine-nuts) and the Indian Spiced Pink Bean Ragu (purple Peruvian potatoes, heirloom cauliflower, tomato confit, cumin scented poori flatbread, kachumber-methi salad, coconut mustard seed cream). I eventually went with the lentil dish since it sounded like something I wouldn’t be able to find somewhere else. My bf chose the Chipotle Grilled Portobello & Zucchini Tamale (dried cherries & toasted almonds, sautéed greens, Ancho-carrot "cream", roasted tomatillo salsa, spiced toasted pumpkin seeds).Our meals arrived beautifully presented. Luckily I remembered my camera. My dish was yummy, but could have had a little more flavor. I really enjoyed the mushrooms and sauce but I wish the lentils had figured more prominently. The range of textures was very nice but I felt the dish needed something else to make it a bit more memorable. On the other hand, the tamale was absolutely out of this world. Luckily my bf was sweet enough to share more than a few bites with me. The corn part of the tamale had such a fresh sweet corn flavor (actually it reminded very much of the handmade corn tortillas from Trader Joes). The inside was creamy and flavorful with just enough spice. Both my bf and I thoroughly enjoyed that dish.

While the entrees were definitely not ‘light’ they also weren’t overly heavy like some nice cuisine can be and left us with enough room for dessert. It didn’t take more than a quick glance at the menu for my bf and I decide on the Mocha crème brulee topped with peppermint chocolate chunk ice cream and chocolate espresso cookie. It was like this dish was designed for us. My favorite flavors are coffee and chocolate and my bf favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip. The dish was super yummy. The ice cream was light and the peppermint flavor was subtle and not overpowering. The mocha part was more like a warm pudding than a crème brulee, but I don’t really care what you call it since it was so tasty. It was kind of like a blob of super thick hot fudge. The flavor wasn’t too rich or too sweet and had nice smokey coffee flavor. It went really well with the minty coolness of the ice cream. Unfortunately I was so distracted with the insane yumminess I forgot to take a picture. I did take one after we finished though hehe.

Overall, Milennium was a truely enjoyable dinning experience. Although I didn't love my entree all the other dishes was amazing. I will definitly be returning on my next trip to San Francisco.

Japanese Candy: Green Tea and Azuki Bean Kit Kats

2006-09-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

I love azuki beans. I don’t know what it is about these beans that tastes so yummy as a sweetened paste, but I must say that it is one of my favorite flavors. I especially enjoy an pan and any kind of frozen treat featuring these yummy beans. One day I was surfing around on the net and I came across azukibean flavored kit kats from Japan. Panic immediately surged through my body. I had to try to these kit kats. What was I to do, since they were only available in Japan? Luckily in a quick search, I found them for auction on ebay, with a ‘buy it now’ option (since I have like no competitive spirit, and have been much disappointed in the past loosing auction, the ‘buy it now’ is like a god-send for me). I immediately clicked the button and before I really new what was going on, I bought a $4 kit kat from Japan, well technically $7.00 when you include the shipping. I giggled at the silliness of the whole ordeal. The seller actually offered like 19 different kit kats from Japan, and would combine orders for cheaper shipping. After looking through all the other flavors, I couldn’t resist getting a bag of the green tea flavored ones as well.I was so excited when these came in the mail. I first tried one of the green tea flavored ones, since the bad included 8 fun sized pieces (the azukibean was just one regular sized bar). I was surprised at how good it was. I have had green tea candies on a couple occasions and haven’t been too thrilled with the flavor, but the green tea kit kat absolutely changed my opinion about green tea candy. The flavor was pronounced but not too strong with just the right balance of sweet and bitter. The coating had a creamy almost buttery undertone which was quite pleasant. The flavor went perfect with the wafer which I found much lighter than American kit kats. The coating was a little soft so when I brought some over to my bfs for him to try, we put a couple in the freezer. They were even better that way and made a nice cool treat to have for a weekday dessert. I was so excited when I saw a post on candy blog about them and read that Cybele purchased them at the Mitsuwa in Little Tokyo. I enjoyed these so much that the next weekend I drove to downtown and pickup myself up another bag, super yum!It was a few days later when I tried the azukibean flavor. I was a little surprised that the box actually contained two individually wraped pairs of kit kat pieces rather than just 4 pieces all together. I wish the ones over here came like that. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as impressed by the flavor of these as I was with the green tea flavor. The coating was super sweet, and while tasty, didn’t really have much of an azukibean flavor. My bf, who doesn’t like azukibean at all, actually enjoyed it and agreed that it didn’t really remind him of azukibeans. While it was good, I was very disappointed, since I really wanted the azuki flavor. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun to try something so random. I actually put in another order for a couple more flavors of kit kats to try…can’t wait to post about them!

Let's Go to Echigo!

2006-09-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I’ve really been craving some good straight up sushi. While I do enjoy much of the California, American style sushi, with the yummy spicy tuna rolls and all, nothing can compare to the buttery melt in your mouth sweetness of real high quality sushi. My bf had heard of a place that served really good sushi on warm rice. We did some searching on the net and came across Echigo. It got raving reviews and the head sushi chef trained under the sushi chef from Sasabune. I had been putting off satisfying my undeniable sushi craving for so long mainly since I didn’t want to spend the money, but the prices at Echigo seemed reasonable and I had just gotten paid, so Friday night seemed like the perfect time to go.

The place was a little crowded, and we did have to wait about 15 minutes, but I didn’t mind. Good things come to those who wait, right? Like many reviews will tell you, the place is scarcely decorated with white walls and white and black furniture. There are little signs in the front that say things like ‘sushi only, we don’t serve any soup, salad, or other things.’ This place was definitely serious about its sushi. All I could think was 'no soup for you' soup nazi style. The bar is for Omakase only, which I really want to try one of these days. Not wanting to spend that much, my bf and I were seated a small table for two.

They definitely weren’t kidding about only serving sushi. The only things on the menu were nigiri sushi, hand rolls (no cut maki) and drinks. I love sake, so we put in an order for a hot sake while we debated over the list of fish on the sushi menu. One thing I love about Echigo is that the pieces come out one by one. I am a slow eater and I truly believe in savoring each bite of food, so this style of serving really allowed for that kind of dining experience. It also insures that the warm rice stayed warm but didn’t cook the fish.

The first piece that came out was the salmon, which is one of my standard favorites. It was served with a little sliver of kelp on top. Both my bf and I were blown away by the flavor. I loved the slightly warm rice. It is a little different, but in a good way. The vinegary rice balanced perfectly with the sweet and buttery salmon. Next we got one piece of swordfish and another piece of a different type of fish of which I now forget the name. Both were served in their own sauce and we instructed to not use the soy sauce. Both pieces were exceptionally good. I don’t think I have ever had swordfish sushi but I would definitely get it again. This was served just slightly seared giving it a delicious flavor and texture. The next was the unagi, which has always been my favorite. After so many orders of truly mediocre pieces at other sushi bars around LA, I forgot how delicious good unagi can be. The meat just seemed to dissolve in my mouth with sweet rich goodness. Oh it was like taking a little bite of sushi heaven. For our final piece, we tried the blue crab hand roll. This seemed to be something that everyone was raving about and for good reason. The toasted nori was a perfect texture and had an amazing toasty nutty flavor. The rice was warm and vinegary and the lump of crab was oh so sweet. All three of those flavors and textures combined created such a super yummy tasting experience. The roll was fairly large and we were quite satisfied after.

Granted we didn’t get much, but the bill was actually under $30 for the two of us including the sake. I wish I had some pictures, but at least that gives me an excuse to go back (not that I need one!) and I will have to do another post with pictures included.

The Good: Amazing sushi, good price, nice casual atmosphere

The Bad: Nothing!

The Yummy: While I bet everything on the menu is delicious so try some things out side of your normal repertoire of sushi, but the salmon, unagi, and blue crab handrolls are all must tries!

Sushi Echigo in West LA
12217 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90025

Rosalind's...Yummy and Fun Ethiopian Cuisine

2006-08-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

I love when people come to visit me since it always helps to force me to get out of my normal routine and do all those things that I I'm always saying that I want to do someday. I have been dying to try Ethiopian food for a while now, especially since I drive through Little Ethiopia on my way to work. My friend from back east was visiting this past weekend, and we trying to decide on some interesting places to eat. Ethiopian food seemed like the perfect choice. After doing a quick comparison on citysearch.com we decided on Rosalind’s Ethiopian Cuisine.

The restaurant had a really nice décor, although the lights could have been a little dimmer to create a better ambience. One wall was a big mirror making the place the look very spacious. It was obviously set up to be rented out for parties and one room had a small dance floor in the middle. Some of the tables were under little canopies that made me think of mini tiki huts and bout 5 tables were the more traditional messob straw tables. Each of those tables had a straw lid, which was kept on till serving, and the tables were dipped in the middle where the platter containing the food was to be placed. It would have been cool to sit at one of those tables but I think they were for parties of two only so my friends and I were sat at one of the regular booths. The menu consisted of a variety of meat and vegetarian stews called wats and all the dishes were served with Ethiopian sourdough flat bread called injara. The injara is used as an eating utensil by tearing off small pieces and then using it to pick up a small amount of the wat. I found the injara too sour for my tastes, although I don’t really care too much sourdough bread in general. The bread was chewy and is traditionally served cold. It kind of looked like napkins folded up on a plate.

Not being familiar with any dishes and having the desire to try many different things, I went with the vegetarian sampler. My friends both got meat dishes. The vegetarian sampler included vegetable alicha (steamed veggies with spices), lentils, collard greens, split pea alicha and one other dish that I don't remember. The portions were very large and were served in a large dish lined with the injara. Overall the vegetarian wats were pretty good. Each had a distinct flavor and there was enough variety in the textures to keep things interesting. While I didn’t care too much for the injara by itself, it went really well with the food and helped give balance to all the flavors. The one thing that was lacking was some spiciness. The lentils had a slight kick to it, but were still relatively mild for even my palate. All my other dishes were very mild. According to my friends, the meat dishes were all very spicy and they all agreed that the lamb was the best meat dish. While I really enjoyed the food, there weren’t any of the dishes that were particularly memorable. Overall though, it was a really fun experience and I will definitely be going out for Ethiopian food again.

The Good: Interesting food, fun to eat

The Bad: Not quite spicy enough

The Yummy: hmm…my fav was the lentils and the lamb was the big hit with my meat eating friends

Mashti Malone's...not all I was hoping for

2006-08-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

Blah...I am so sad, I am 0-2 on my list...not so good, considering all the super yummy places I have been around the city. I hit up Mashti Malone's after giving a little driving tour of Hollywood to my brother and his lady friend. I was really looking forward to trying some of the more interesting flavors. Luckily they let you have samples. Being the ginger lover that I am, I tried the ginger rose water. Admittedly, it was good for one taste, but I couldn't imagine eating a whole cup full since it kind of reminded me of perfume. My bf tried the saffron and we both felt the same way about that flavor. I ended up going with the Turkish coffee. I have to say it was quite good and had very strong, deep, earthy, coffee flavor. Actually looking back, it was probably one the best coffee flavors I've had in ice cream. The texture was not quite smooth enough though and it had little ice crystals in it. My bf got the blueberry cheesecake, which was also very good. The texture was smooth and thick and had a great sweet cheesy flavor. While both of our flavors ended up being quite good, I really wanted to like their more interesting flavors. I do agree that Mashti Malone's is good (although wouldn't say it is the best in LA), and if I was in the area I might go back, but it is definitely not some place that I will be going out of my way to revisit.

Chan Dara...yummy and easy standard spot

2006-07-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs a handful of restaurants that are part of their standard repertoire of places to eat out. Decent food, close to home, nice variety. For my bf and I, Chan Dara falls into that category. It is only down the street and their menu has a nice selection of inexpensive dishes as well as ones that are a little more interesting. We already had plans to do the Violet on Sunday thing for my bf's birthday but his actual birth date was on Thursday so we needed a to do something for dinner the night of his birthday. After a little contemplation, Chan Dara seemed like a nice choice.

I'm glad we went since we had a lovely time. We were both really hungry when we got to the restaurant and decided to split an order of the spring rolls. They were absolutely amazing, probably one of the best I have ever had. The rice vermicelli inside the roll was marinated in some sauce which gave it a very yummy flavor and the dipping sauce complemented the flavors very well. I was going to just get a salad, but decided to be a little more exciting and ordered the clay pot with clams. I love steamed clams and especially when they come in one of those clay pots. It makes me feel so earthy, like generations of people have been eating them this way. The sauce they were served in was just spicy enough for my taste and not too heavy. I also really enjoyed the bell peppers in the dish which went really well with the sauce. I wish the dish had been served with rice but luckily my bf got enough rice that he could share. I usually love the rice at Chan Dara since it is very chewy but it was actually a little too chewy on this occasion. I didn't mind too much though. Since we were celebrating a birthday I also got a super yummy mixed drink. I was being my typical indecisive self and couldn't decide what drink to order (their list is quite long). I finally decided on the lychee margarita. I love the Buddha Margarita from P.F.Changs, which is pretty much just a margarita with lychee. I was so excited when it came with a whole lychee in it!! It was super yum, I love the way the lychee flavor complements the lime and tequila of standard margarita. My bf got some beef dish which he said was very good. The food at Chan Dara isn't amazing but it is very good and all of the experiences I have had there have been quite enjoyable.

The Good: Nice ambiance, close to home, good food choices, nice variety on menu, yummy mixed drinks

The Bad: once I got the tempura and it was yucky...but who order's tempura at a thai place...silly me!

The Yummy: spring rolls, clam pot, stir frys, catfish

Birthday Boy's Creation: Chocolate Cake, Toffee Frosting, and Banana Ice Cream!

2006-07-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

Mmmm…I just love birthdays! I love to celebrate my own and I love celebrating others, especially since I get an excuse to bake!! Each year my mom always has to make for each member of my family our ‘favorite’ cake…Now, I love my bf and all, but he isn’t one to have ‘favorite’ dessert type things, which is okay, I can deal with that, at least it allows me variety. Last year I made him a homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. The cake turned out delicious, but due to a crappy freezer the frozen core of my ice cream maker didn’t get cold enough to freeze the ice cream. Oh well, at least that refrigerator eventually died and now my bf has a nice new one with a good better freezer...anyways, back to this year…when I asked my boyfriend what kind of cake he wanted, I think half joking he suggested chocolate cake with toffee frosting and banana ice cream. Since I love all three of those flavors and like making things that aren’t the same the same old thing, I replied with an enthusiastic "sure"! And I’m so glad I did since the results turned out fabulous!

For the chocolate cake, I used the recipe of the back of the Hershey’s cocoa box, which can also be found on their web site. My mom and I both swear by this chocolate cake recipe. It is only a couple steps more than using a box mix and the results are absolutely amazing. It is so moist, a little dense, and very rich and chocolaty. I love that step when you add a cup of boiling water to the batter and a delicious chocolaty smell rises up from the mixing bowl. Ohhh…super yum!

I wasn’t sure what to do for the toffee frosting, but I did a quick search on Google and came across this recipe. It didn’t really appeal to me at first since Cool Whip isn’t exactly one of my favorite things. However I know that bf loves it (and it is HIS birthday after all). Also, I thought that it would balance the richness of the banana ice cream much better than a more traditional butter cream frosting.

For the banana ice cream, I used a recipe out of my favorite ice cream recipe book. While usually I like to experiment trying to make a low fat version, I really wanted to go for some real ice cream this time (okay I admit I did substitute 2% milk for the half and half but still I did actually use real cream). The recipe it turned out so good it actually makes me want to give up on my quest for the perfect low fat recipe. The bananas I used were super ripe and it was almost too sweet. Good thing the cake was so rich! The combination of these three parts worked in perfect harmony to create an amazing dessert. The richness of the chocolate cake, the cool creaminess of the ice cream and light fluffy frosting all complemented each other very well. I can’t wait till next year to make whatever delicious combination my bf comes up with then.

Grain of the Month (GOTM) - Quinoa...yay!!

2006-07-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of different grains out there that I don’t really have any experience cooking with such as quinoa, couscous, barely and amaranth. I have always wanted to branch out and try some recipes made with these, but often get a little intimidated or have a hard time picking a recipe. To help me branch out and try some of these recipes I am going to start “Grain of the Month” aka GOTM. Each month I am going to pick a new grain to try and then about each week or so make a different recipe involving that grain. This way I can try a few different recipes and get experiment with the different ways the grain can be cooked and enjoyed. Yum!

For the month of July, I choose quinoa. I have read so many things about this grain being super healthy and very versatile. Not only is it high in protein, but is also contains all essential amino acids, making it a great food source for vegetarians. It’s hard to believe that after all these years I’ve never gotten around to cooking with. There are so many recipes online that it is hard to choose one! Last week I made a recipe for Quinoa with Sesame Tofu that I found on the CookingLight website. Unfortunately, my first attempt at cooking with quinoa wasn’t a super success. I think I must have had the heat a little too high while I was simmering the quinoa and I kind of burned the bottom. Oops! I was going to throw it out and try the recipe again another night, but it was already 9pm and I didn’t have anything else to eat to go with the tofu I had cooked so I went ahead and finished up the dish. It actually wasn’t too bad and I really enjoyed the flavor. I didn’t find that the recipe had enough of a sauce (especially to mask the slightly over-toastiness of the quinoa) so I added a splash of toasted sesame oil and a little seasoned rice vinegar in addition to the soy sauce which helped a lot. The tofu turned out very yummy and went really well with nutty taste of the quinoa. I can’t wait to try another recipe!

Chandi...well at least it was cheap

2006-06-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to like Chandni. An inexpensive, all vegetarian, Indian restaurant only a few minutes from home, what more could I want? Unfortunately the food just wasn't that great and it left me feeling so awful the next day that it’s hard to remember even the few good points of the meal for writing this post. Oh well, they can't all be winners and I guess that is part of the fun trying new things. My friend I went with took some pictures with her oh-so-cool camera so I will post those as soon as she sends them to me.

We arrived at the restaurant starving and put in an immediate order for the appetizer sampler. This came out with a variety of Indian appetizers including Samasoa ( super yummy!), Panerer Pakors, and some papdums with spicy mint and milk tamarind chutneys. The papdums were tasty but I didn’t care too much for the chutneys. Both were too runny and the spicy mint was too spicy and mild tamarind was too mild. All of the fried fitters were really good with a good amount of spice and heat. I think if I had known that those were going to be the highlight of the meal I would have savored them more.

For the main course we each ordered one dish to share and then a single order of rice and nan. The three dishes we got were Alu Ghobhi(potatoes and cauliflower cooked with fresh ginger and herbs) , Bhara Began (eggplant stuffed with our special combination of vegetables & herbs with chef's secret recipe sauce), and Khumb Curry(fresh mushrooms and green peas cooked with fresh tomatoes. onions and herbs). Looking back maybe we didn’t make the best choices of dishes for variety but all three dishes were covered in the same colored orange sauce. I couldn’t really tell if the sauce was creamy or not and I guess each one did have its own subtle differences but they all looked so similar that it all the flavors kind of ran together. It didn’t taste too bad while I was eating it although it was a little mild for Indian food. I really enjoyed the eggplant dish and how the eggplant would just dissolve the instant it touched your tongue. The flavors got old real fast (maybe since it all tasted almost the same). The rice was nothing special and the nan was kind of blah. I think it might have helped if we had order some dal or one of the green dishes. I left the restaurant rather disappointed and even though it was cheap, the $1.99 Indian meals from Trader Joe’s are even cheaper and a lot better!

The Good: its all vegetarian so I can eat anything on the menu

The Bad: uhhh...the food...hehe

The Yummy: hmmm....well I guess the appertizers weren't too shabby, but they were all fried

Recipe: double chocolate chip cookie dough yogurt that is frozen....

2006-06-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

That's it, Im throwing in the cheesecloth...this was my final attempt at making frozen yogurt. I have come to realization that you cannot make homemade frozen yogurt that doesn't taste, well, like yogurt. In typing that statement, I realize how silly that is but that stuff they call frozen yogurt that one buys at the store doesn't taste like yogurt. It doesn't taste like ice cream either so I'm not quite sure what it is. Since this recipe turned out horrible Im not even going to bother posting it. The only good part of it was the chunks of double chocolate chip cookie dough that I added. I would have rather just ate the cookie dough plan and save the calories from the frozen yogurt. This recipe froze super solid over night and the tanginess intensified making it completely inedible the following night. Oh well, it was an experience. I still have some cookie dough so I think I will make an ice cream version with that, maybe my new goal will be to perfect a super tastey low-fat homemade ice cream recipe.

Mani's Cafe...fresh and yummy

2006-05-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

There are so many restaurants in this city that sometimes it can be hard to choose a place at random to eat. Yesterday, my boyfriend and I were driving a guest around giving her a quick little tour of LA and all of were starving. We were in the Beverly Hills area (which we don't frequent very often) and were at loss for a place to eat. I remembered a sandwich place I had read about somewhere that was located along Fairfax just off Wilshire and even without me remembering the name, we managed to find Mani's Cafe. This turned out to be a perfect place for lunch with a nice selection of sandwiches, salads, and soups and also some outdoor setting. They also have an amazing bakery selection of cakes, cookies and other goodise (which I can't wait to go back and try). One reason I really liked this place was they had a large selection of vegetarian and vegan options, even vegan cakes and cookies and also clearly explained the ingredients. Check out their website for a menu.

For my meal, I ordered a bowl of the vegetarian chili and even though it was more like a chuncky bean and veggie soup it was very good. The broth was not as thick as most chilis and it wasn't very spicey, but I really enjoyed the chuncks of zuchinni and pepper and white beans. It came with a whole wheat roll which was absolutly amazing. It was very fresh and chewy with slightly sweet toasted oats on the top. I rarely finish my bread when I eat out, but I scarfed this roll down so fast and was even eating the toasted oats that I had fallen off of the top. It sopped up the broth of my chili very nicely but it has sucha good flavor I enjoyed it plain better. Both Dave and Leslie ordered sandwiches. All of the sandwiches come with a choice of either a salad, soup, french fries or chips and salsa which all make for a very nice size meal. Dave had a bowl of soup and Leslie went with the chips and salsa. All the soups are vegan and they offer one selection each day of the week. Sunday's is Tortilla soup day and it was so super yummy I couldn't stop stealing bites out of his bowl! It was very thick and creamy (if it wasn't vegan I would have sworn it was made with cream) with little thin strips of different colored totilla floating on top. It did have a slight cilantro flavor, which usually isn't my favorite but added some nice depth to the soup. Dave said his sandwich was very good and that he would consider going back there again. Since I love fresh and healthy food, I thought this place was great. A lot of vegetarian friendly options along with non-vegetarian things make it great for a mixed crowd. Since I work just around the conor from this place I will definitely be stopping in again. I really want to try some of their tea, especially the ginger macha and I am also super curious about some of those vegan baked goods...mmmm....hopefully they will be yum!

The Good: lots of vegetarian, vegan, and healthy options.

The Bad: maybe a little expensive for what it is...

The Yummy: vegetarian soups, bread, can't wait to try some of their baked goods they good a yummy for looks!

Above&Beyond at Spundae!!!

2006-05-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

Yay...there are few things in life as good as food...and one of them is listening to Above&Beyond spin live!! I had a very boring food weekend (the most exciting thing I ate was an Amy's burrito) but that's okay since I got to meet Tony and Jono, two of three members from Above&Beyond. They are always so sweet to their fans.
Their set was amazing, as always, and I danced my heart out while they were spinning. I absolutely love their new album, Tri-State. Check out my tee-shirt, I didn't realize that I was so naturally skilled in writing in puffy paint! Yeee...too bad puffy paint is llike sooo 15 years ago!
I also got to meet all three members last Decemeber...and I also made a tee shirt then too! Hehe...check out me stealing a kiss from Paavo! Muah!

Recipe: Cafe au Lait Frozen Yogurt

2006-05-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I made another attempt at frozen yogurt. I have only made frozen yogurt a couple times and have never been overly thrilled the results since I find it to be too tangy (or 'yogurty' tasting as I like to say). I was really excited to try this recipe since it used cornstarch and 1/4 c. of mini marshmallows, which I have never used in an ice cream recipe before. Plus, I was excited about using the Wallaby’s vanilla bean flavored yogurt, which isn’t too tangy. I think the cornstarch and the marshmallows did help since the frozen yogurt had a really nice thick and smooth consistency. Unfortunately, the wallaby’s yogurt didn’t help much with the tanginess and it still had a strong yogurt flavor. Oh well, luckily I like yogurt, so even though it doesn't taste like regular 'frozen yogurt' it was still yummy. The recipe called for instant coffee which I normally don't really care. I used a brand of instant espresso which I have used for baking before and it gave the yogurt a super delicious almost caramel like coffee flavor. I served the frozen yogurt as soon as it was done with a couple of twice baked butterscotch cookies from Trader Joes (they are like mini biscotti) and a dollop of cool whip...super yum! The frozen yogurt didn’t really freeze that well and the next night tasted kind of like a tangy coffee popsicle. Overall it wasn’t that bad but I don’t think I would make this recipe again. Update 3/17- I just had that vanilla bean yogurt for breakfast and it wasn't nearly as 'mild' tasting as I remembered...maybe it wasn't the best choice for the recipe. Following some recommendations I found on other sites, in my next frozen yogurt attempt I am going to try using Fage greek yogurt.

Cafe au Lait Frozen Yogurt

2/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 1/4 c. milk
1 T instant coffee (I actually use instant espresso)
1 egg
1/4 c. mini marshmallows
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c vanilla bean yogurt (I used 2 6oz servings)

In 1-2 quart pot, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add milk and coffee and bring the mixture to a simmer. Beat the egg in a medium bowl and slowly add about half of the milk/sugar mixture to the egg and beat together. Beat in the egg mixture to the remaining milk in the pot and return to the stove over a low heat. Cook for about 5 minutes more until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the marshmallows untill they are fully disolved. Allow mixture to cool. Stir in the vanilla and yogurt and refrigerate for at least a couple hours. Freeze in ice cream maker and enjoy (well, sort of...)

These are a few of my favorite things...

2006-05-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been very busy lately with work and school and haven't had any time to get out and about to any new and exciting places to eat. Oh well, at least there are plenty of yummy fast foods and snacks for me to enjoy. Here is just a short little list of some of my favorite quick, easy, and super tastey foods:

Amy's meals - If you haven't tried any of the Amy's brand prepared foods you are really missing out on some super yummy, quick and easy, (supposedly) good for you food. My favorite items are the soups and Indian microwave meals. I almost went crazy when I had to live without a microwave for about 2 months last year and I could have my Amy's Palak Paneer meal! Her soups are thick and full of flavor, especially the fire-roasted southwestern vegetable. The vegetable bean chili is just spicy enough and full of yummy beans and doesn’t have any TVP. I also love to bring the roasted veggie pocket for lunch at work. Its full of roasted artichokes, peppers, and mushrooms and the sauce has a slight Asian taste to it. While cooking in the microwave, the corners of the pocket get really crispy, which is actually really good. All the ingredients are organic and made with whole wheat, so even though it is prepared microwave food, it is still somewhat healthy and absolutely delicious. (www.amys.com)
Trader Joe's Papadums, tandori marsala flavor - hehe...I debated about putting this on my list, since my Trader Joe's already has a hard time keeping these on the shelves, but they are so yummy my list wouldn't be complete without them. Papadums are little chips made of favabean flour and coated with Indian spices. I’m not sure if they are baked or lightly fried, but there are fairly low fat (5 g per serving) and the serving size is very large (22 chips!) so I consider it to be somewhat healthy. Of course they are so good, it is hard to stop at one serving. They also come in a yogurt dill flavor, which I have yet to try. Its always left on the selves after all the tandori marsala bags are gone. I’m not a huge fan of dill but I might just have try them one of these days.
Wahoo's - mmmm....Wahoo's is definitely my favorite 'fast food' place, probably the only one that I visit on a regular basis. I find nothing can beat the quality of the food for such a cheep price. My boyfriend and I can eat there for about $8.00, which is less than if we had bought stuff at the grocery store. I always get the same thing: one flame-broiled fish taco a la cart. The fish is very fresh and moist with a nice flavor. They don't put any weird white sauce on it, just some cabbage, salsa and a little cheese. I like when I go with my boyfriend since he always get some beans and rice which he so nicely shares with me. I don't know what they do to season their rice, but it is so good. It is just very simple white rice but it is so tasty and it sops up the black bean so well. There shrimp taco's are good as well. One of these days I’m going to try a fish enchilada. Yeee! (www.wahoos.com)
Wallaby's Vanilla Bean Yogurt - I love yogurt. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always enjoyed yogurt for breakfast, lunch, or just a snack. Back in the day, my fave was the Yoplait custard style strawberry and blueberry flavors. Nowadays, I usually get either Stonyfield farm or Wallaby's brand and the flavors I like best are vanilla and maple. I had never heard of Wallaby's until I moved out to California and I think it is only sold in health food stores (I’ve seen it at Santa Monica Co-op and Mother's) but it is definitely worth the price and a special trip. My favorite flavor atm is their vanilla bean. It actually had little flecks of vanilla in it and a soft vanilla flavor which counters the tangy yogurt flavor very nicely. I think I will try this type in my next frozen yogurt attempt (which hopefully will be this Sunday.) (www.wallabyyogurt.com)

Busy busy…future restaurants I want to try

2006-05-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

I wanted the main focus of this blog to be reviews of restaurants ‘in and around Santa Monica’. However, since I work full time and also take evening classes I don’t much free time to get out and about. However, I have only one month left of classes and soon I will have the time to try many new places that I can write about! Yay…lots of food (good thing more free time means more time for the gym too!) Also, since the reason I’m taking classes is to get a degree in Nutrition Science and since I’m an ovo-lacto-pesco vegetarian (eggs, milk, fish) I want to focus some of my critiques on the healthier vegetarian friendly options provided.

Here is my list of some places I hope to try in the coming months:

Real Food Daily - 514 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica
Leaf Cuisine - 11938 W. Washington Blvd, Los Angeles
Madeleine Bistro - 18621 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana
Chandni - North Indian vegetarian - 1909 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica
Toi on Wilshire - Thai - 1120 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica
Jin Patisserie - 1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice
Boule - Pastry/chocolate shop - 420 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles
Mashti Malone's Ice Cream - 1525 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles
Izayoi - 132 S. Central Ave, Little Tokyo
Izakaya Haru Ulala - 368 E 2nd St, Little Tokyo
The Hungary Cat - 1535 North Vine, HollyWood
Inaka Fine Natural Foods - 131 South La Brea Ave., Los Angeles

Tempura Party!!

2006-05-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, my friends and I got together for a tempura party!! Now, for anyone who knows how little fried food I eat, they would find it quite odd that I actually own a deep fryer. I bought it a couple years ago when my parents came out to California for Thanksgiving so we could make our traditional fried oysters (super yum…future post?) and I haven’t used it since. Anyway, I guess it does come in handy for a super fun Tempura Party!! Tempura is the Japanese version of battered deep fried stuff, generally seafood and vegetables. Wikipedia has a good explanation of the origins of tempura, which was supposedly brought to Japan in the 16th century by the Portuguese.

It is actually quite easy to make and a lot of fun to do together with a bunch of your friends. Standard things to tempura include shrimp and various vegetables such as sweet potato, green pepper, eggplant, green beans, carrots, and onions. These are all super yummy, but the best part of making your own is being creative. One fun thing to do is to have all the guests bring various things to tempura ranging from the more standard stuff to things that wouldn’t typically be on a menu at a restaurant. Some of the things we tried turned out really good, while others weren’t quite what we hoped; of course that's part of the fun with experimenting. Some of the more standard things we did were shrimp, calamari, tiny scallops, onion rings, peppers, and sweet potato (soak potato in water for about an hour prior to frying). Here is a summery of some of the more interesting things:

Salmon sushi roll – good, the salmon inside became cooked while frying
Mozzarella pieces – yum, a nice twist on mozzarella sticks, be careful though since might melt
Blackberries – surprisingly very good, tasted like little fried blackberry cobblers
Banana – okay, some of my friends really liked it but, but I found it just gooey and not that flavorful
Chocolate truffles – didn’t really hold up well in the oil, although the melted chocolate became a perfect dip for the banana and blackberries, yum!
Green tea ice cream mochi (from Trader Joe’s) – okay…we were all so full by the time these came out. The mochi part helped it hold up in the oil
And my favorite…Oreo cookies (well, actually Joe’s O’s for those who shop at Trader Joe’s) – Absolutely amazing, the cookie part got really soft and chewy and the creamy filling became really gooey – super yum!!

I adapted the batter from a Japanese cook book I got from the bargin section at Borders (it was only $3.99!) The batter is just a simple mixture of ice cold water, egg, and flour with a splash of sake. Some recipes I saw online used soda water, which would be interesting to try. The batter must be kept cold, so a couple of ice cubes are added to the batter to keep it from getting warm while frying everything. Also be sure to dust the item to tempura in flour before dipping it in the batter. If you want a lot of batter (like for the ice cream) it helps to dip it in the batter, then roll in flour and then dip in the batter a second time. The batter should be made right before you plan to fry and keep enough extra of the ingredients handy to make more batter as the night goes on. I think I ended up making 3 batches!

Recipe – Tempura

1 cup ice cold water
1 egg, beaten
¾ cup flour, sifted
Splash of sake (about 1 ½ tsp maybe…)
Ice cubes
Extra flour for frying
Tempura dipping sauce

Mix together the water and beaten egg. Gently stir in the flour using chopsticks, batter should be thin and lumpy. Mix in the splash of sake. Add the ice cubes to keep batter cold while dipping and frying. Heat oil in a deep fryer (you could probably also use a pot instead) to about 350 degrees F. Dust the item for frrying with flour, dip into batter and then drop into deep fryer. Cook a couple minutes until coating is a light golden brown. Let cool a few minutes and enjoy with the dipping sauce!

SMFC Washington D.C. Trip Part 2: Jaleo's

2006-04-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Jaleo’s is a super yummy tapas bar and another one of my favorite ‘unique to the DC area’ restaurants. Tapas bars have become quite popular in the last few years and since I’m one of those people who always has to try a little bite of everyone’s dinner, tapas is the perfect kind of dining for me. I love all the little dishes and all the ‘ohhhs’ and ‘ahhhs’ and ‘omigod did you try the scallops’ while passing the little plates of food around the table. It makes for a very unifying dinning experience. Also since you order so many dishes it is much easier to be a little more experimental in your food selection, which is always a lot of fun.

I’ve been to quite a few Tapas bars, but none match the quality of the dishes that we get at Jaleo’s. All of the names of the dishes are written on the menu in Spanish with a description in English. Some of my favorite dishes we got this time include the Moorish stew of chickpeas and spinach, Shrimp with red pepper stew, Sweet peppers stuffed with goat cheese and mushrooms and Scallops with ‘Romesco’ sauce. While I don’t eat meat (except seafood), the rest of my family couldn’t stop raving about the Duck confit with pear sauce and the Grilled lamb chops with rosemary sauce. Even my dad, who hates lamb, couldn’t stop talking about how good it was. Jaleo’s also has some of the best sangria which you can order by the pitcher. They use a perfect mix of red wine, liquor, and green apple pieces. Sometimes in the summer they offer white wine sangria with strawberries which is absolutely amazing. For dessert we always get atleast one order of the homemade coffee ice cream. This ice cream has a very rich and strong coffee flavor and comes with a piece of plain biscotti to help scoop it up (and dip in your espresso). We also tried for the first time the Basque cake with semolina cream, cinnamon-vanilla sauce and ice milk. This was very interesting; I really enjoyed the mix of flavors and the contrast in textures between the cake, semolina cream, and ice milk. Each bite could be different depending on the amounts of each of those ingredients. Dinning out is often so much more than just good food but also the experience and I also find both to be exceptional at Jaleo’s.

The Good: Yummy food, great service

The Bad: Eating too much! (its hard to monitor yourself with all those different dishes!)

The Yummy: Sangria, Moorish stew, scallops, coffee ice cream… (I could really go on and on…)

SMFC Washington D.C. Trip Part 1: Teaism

2006-04-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I took a trip to my hometown in Northern VA, about 30 miles outside of Washington DC. One of my favorite things about going home is eating some good food! While I don't think that DC is known much for its culinary offerings, I find the city has a great variety of interesting and unique restaurants and cafes. One of my favorite little places that I visit every trip home is Teaism. This cute little tea shop offers a variety of teas and Japanese inspired meals and goodies in a chill and relaxing atmosphere. They have 3 locations around the city. Their homemade chai tea is to die for and it was also the first place on the east coast I ever saw Boba tea (although they call it zhenzhou pearls…which I think sounds yummier).

After checking out a great Hokusai exhibit at the Sackler, my boyfriend and I wandered over to the location in Penn Quater. This location offers a full menu with many meal options. My boyfriend had the tempeh curry and I ordered the tuna bento and a ginger margarita. While the tempeh curry was good, it was really more like a slightly spicy stir fry than a curry. My tuna bento consisted of sushi quality seared tuna (very tasty) with a little wasabi dipping sauce, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and rice with yummy seasoning on top. Both meals were decent, although nothing super amazing. My favorite part of the meal was the ginger margarita. The flavor reminded me of slightly lemony ginger ale with just a little kick from the tequila. The downstairs seating area has a little coy pond and is very calm and relaxing. I think I go more for the ambience than actual food!

(this is a picture of the salmon bento from a previous visit...yum!)

The next day while sightseeing with my dad we stopped by the Teaism in Dupont Circle. This location has a slightly smaller menu. We ordered the salty oat cookie and the shortbread cookie trio, which consists of regular, green tea, and cocoa flavored shortbread. All the cookies were very yummy and really hit the spot. The green tea shortbread cookie had a delicate and subtle earthy flavor and the cocoa cookie tasted just like a sip of hot cocoa. Since I love salty sweet things, I really enjoyed the salty oat cookie. It was a perfect balance of the two flavors and had a delicious chewy texture.

The Good: ambiance, great selection of tea, interesting food selection

The Bad: a little expensive (for what it is), food can be hit or miss

The Yummy: mochi, salty oat cookie, ginger margarita

Teaism in Dupont Circle - How cute!

3rd St. Series: Famima!!

2006-04-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Today I bought lunch from Famima!!, a super cute little convenience store located along the 3^rd st. promenade in Santa Monica. Now, I must let you know that this isn’t your run of the mill convenience store. Famima!! is run by a Japanese company and, as their website states, is “based on the extremely successful Japanese model, enhanced with upscale delicatessen and premium foods and tailored for the savvy American consumer.” The style is very modern and fresh looking. They offer a selection of prepared foods, baked goods, chips, Japanese snacks, an interesting selection of magazines, and stationary. There are currently 4 locations in the LA area including the one along the 3rd st Promenade in Santa Monica. You really must check out their website to really get a feel for how this place is. Unfortunately, as much as I want to absolutely love Famima!!, it really is just so-so. The prepared food selection is quite small and includes prepackaged sushi and other Japanese style foods along with just a few sandwiches and other dim sum like dishes that would need to be heated in the microwave. If you are in to that style of food then you probably find something that you would enjoy, if not you might find yourself just wondering around looking for something to eat.

I would definitely recommend the Inari and buckwheat Inari combo which I had for my lunch today. Its three pieces of inari filled with soba noodles and three pieces of inari filled with a rice mixture. This is one of my favorite dishes from Famima!! I love the sweat taste of the inari along with the sour vinegary flavors of the rice and soba. I also love the sticky texture of the rice and the way the soft soba noodles combine with the slightly chewy texture of the inari. The dish also came with a small amount of pickled ginger which tastes delicious with the soba inari. I also couldn’t resist getting a box of pocky for a little dessert. It was the perfect ending to this yummy lunch.

Recipe: Lower Fat Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Ice Cream

2006-04-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite foods to make right now is ice cream. I am a serious ice cream/frozen yogurt addict and there is nothing more fun than making your own. In some ways, making homemade ice cream can seem a little unsatisfying. Buying all the ingredients is generally more expensive than just buying a quart from the store and the finished product may not always achieve a desired consistency after being in the freezer for more than a couple hours (especially when using lower fat ingredients). However, I love the creativity and experimentation involved and nothing tastes better than freshly churned ice cream made from all natural ingredients.

My latest creation was lower fat mint chocolate chip cheesecake. I adapted the recipe from Bruce Weinstein's The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. To cut down on the fat, I substituted 2% milk for the cream and used low fat cream cheese. This ice cream had a subtle slightly understated very sweet mint flavor which balanced perfectly with the slight tang from the cream cheese. While I was tempted to add more mint (I already added ¼ tsp more than the recipe called for), I'm glad that I restrained myself for it would have been too overpowering. The cream cheese not only helped in adding depth to the flavor but also in creating a smooth and silky consistency in the finished product. Update 4/18....this ice cream froze very well especially considering it had no cream in it; another benefit from the cream cheese. I also found the flavors to be more intense. This was a very good recipe, I would definitely make again and would also enjoy trying other flavors instead of mint.

Lower Fat Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Ice Cream

1 cup sugar
4 oz. low-fat cream cheese
1 egg
¾ tsp peppermint extract
2 ¼ cup 2% milk (divided)
½ cup chocolate chips

Cream the sugar and low-fat cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Beat in the egg and peppermint extract. Set aside. In a small heavy pot over a medium flame, bring 1 cup of the milk to a boil. Slowly beat the warm milk into the cream cheese mixture. Return the cream cheese and milk to the pan and allow to thicken over a low heat stirring constantly. Add the remaining 1 ¼ cup of milk and continue to stir and heat until thickened slightly, about 3-5 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Remove from heat and chill covered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or over night. Churn the mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Add the chocolate chips towards the end of the churning process. The ice cream will be a little soft when done, but I always like to have some right away! Store in the freezer to eat later…super yum!!

Welcome to my blog...

2006-04-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

…I moved to California about a year and a half ago and absolutely love it here! One of my passions has always been food. I love the abundance and variety of places to dine in LA and I also love trying new recipes so I figured I’d start a blog to share my culinary experiences with the world.