a glimpse into a family thanksgiving

this thanksgiving was the first time in the last three years that i was stateside. two years ago, i was eating solo at a fancy restaurant in prague celebrating thanksgiving with a nice juicy duck. last year, i was eating swine with a couple of brazilians, a couple of italians and a chilean who were strangers a week before in a beach restaurant in brazil. this year, i spent some time with my mom's side of the family. the location may not have been exotic and the food may have been conventional. but, that is what made it a good thanksgiving.

of course, the eating got started, not with eating, but with drinking. we had to have the bubbly. here's the appetizer table:


and oh yeah, lumpia. crispy fried pork lumpia to be exact. addictive. i think i ate half of this platter.


here's our thanksgiving table.


the stuffing.



my cousin joe's favorite: creamed corn. corn and lots of cream = corn heaven.


green beans with mushrooms. one needed to have fiber, after all.


yams.


and the bird:


juicy goodness.


and gravy.


here's my plate. yummy goodness.


oh of course we also had dessert. my auntie brought pinoy dessert. the top one was rice-based with lots of sugar. the bottom one was called turon - fried banana wrapped in a wonton-like paper with lots of sugar.


jello.



and yeah, the dessert i brought. i would like to say that i baked this cake. but that would make me a liar. so i won't. but this berry blossom cake from susina bakery was DA BOMB!



and finally, this was what we should be thankful for. at least, according to my cousin's kid:


personally, i was thankful to have a fun family who loves to eat, drink, and gossip (not necessarily in that order). like my cousin liza says, "that's our thing."

sybil and the new york times

on the heels of my 2 second appearance (at 1:19) on friday on tv (cbs2/kcal9) extolling the nickel diner's bacon donut, i found myself today on the pages of the new york times.

to be exact, there was a picture of people stretching/jogging and some photographer shot a picture of me bending/stretching. no one can see my face but i know my pony tail and my outfit (second from left).

this is no admission of guilt. the law says no one can stretch on the median, i.e. the grassy strip. i was on the street. with no grassy strip in sight. so there.

that being said, here are my two cents:

my understanding is that the santa monica ordinance prohibits any activity on grassy strips in santa monica except for walking and jogging. that means that those doing ab exercises or stretching exercises on the grassy strip are violating the law.

is this ordinance constitutional given that the grassy strip is on public property?

well, methinks that the city can regulate the use of public property based on time, place and manner (TPM). so, for example, i would think that if the ban is enforced at noon or 1 pm when no one in the neighborhood is reasonably expected to be asleep and not be bothered by the exercisers, the ban is probably too restrictive. the idea is that while people have a first amendment right to associate whenever and wherever, the government can still restrict that right based on TPM regulations.

but hey, what do i know?

oh right, i guess i have 14 minutes and 50 seconds of fame left...

ucla athletes rock!

we got rhodes scholars awarded to bruin football and rugby players. guess they're not wearing their IQ's on their jerseys.

go bruins!

just another friday night

on friday night, i mourned the loss of ucla to michigan (michigan!!!) from the night before. yep, it's basketball season and i had such high hopes. ucla has got to have its best incoming freshmen in the howland era although i must admit that there are no real big men on this squad. with kevin love playing in the nba, the 5 is tasked to alfred aboya.... whom i absolutely think is a hustler and a team player. and this article about aboya just made me want to cry.

but more importantly, even with the highly touted freshmen and the senior leadership of darren collison and josh shipp, ucla's seeming inablity to break a zone is puzzling.

so what to do on a friday night.... i inwardly pondered on the future of bruin basketball as i waited for my friends to show up at this newish sushi/izakaya joint (go for the izakaya not the sushi) called bimi. then, i went to see that james bond flick, "quantum of solace" (crap!).

we started off with a white fish carpaccio in hot olive oil. let me just say that this dish was delish. i liked the raw fish with the flavors of the olive oil. simple. yummy.



similarly, this corn tempura was excellent. not corn on the cob tempura. just ears of the corn in tempura batter and deep fried. the corn was sweet and but had that crunch of the tempura.



the crab dynamite roll was bland and a waste of calories.



the crunchy rice with spicy tuna was very good.



the rainbow roll did not stand out. let me just point out now that i also had the sweet shrimp (no picture). it came at $12, which was market price. but, it was not worth the money. the fried heads came lukewarm to cold and the shrimp itself was not as sweet. the rice was also not warm (but then again, as a rule, i prefer warm rice with the fish/shrimp on top as opposed to the cold rice most sushi joints have).



the uni fried rice below was too salty. the uni was not fresh either.



the roast duck was tender.



the ethnic chicken (i swear, that's the name of the dish) was very good. it had a sweet aftertaste.



there were other dishes we tried, like the miso soup (can't screw that one up) and other cut rolls, which were nothing to write home about. we also had a bottle of wine and it came to about $31.50 per person. the price was definitely affordable. if i go back, i will definitely have to skip the sushi and just go izakaya.

as for quantum of solace? can someone tell me what the plot was? cuz i just don't get it.

sybil and the bacon donut

my 2 seconds of fame (at 1:19). and, i didn't even get a minute, much less 15.



no worries, fame won't change me.

the goal: kilimanjaro

i plan on going to summit kili soon so here are some things to look forward to. it seems ann curry took the machame route, the same one i plan on taking. eeks! must get my arse in gear for that daily "6 hours of stairmaster with a 20 pound backpack."

RIP coach newell

a sad day in the college basketball world.

may you rest in peace, coach.

eating at aunt kizzy's

after 24 hours in san francisco, i found myself back home in la la land. home and hungry.

i have heard much about aunt kizzy's back porch and how it was so good yadda yadda yadda. i have never eaten there primarily because i did not know where glencoe was. aunt kizzy's, however, moved from its former location on glencoe to washington boulevard where the killer shrimp used to be. so, because i knew exactly where the new location was, i went. finally.

let me begin with the corn bread. i really liked it. i don't know if it was the hunger (the last time i ate anything at that point was 16 hours before, i.e., dinner) or if it was truly good. but this i can tell you: it was warm, buttery, had a slight crunch on the outside and yummy soft goodness on the inside. i can also say that it was better than the corn bread at roscoe's chicken and waffles.



after consuming two cornbread, i ordered the 2 entrees, 2 sides of fried chicken and smothered pork chop, and sides of green beans and mac n cheese. perhaps i was satiated at this point but i found that the fried chicken at honey's kettle was juicier and crispier. aunt kizzy's chicken was crispy and juicy, just not as those from honey's kettle. the smothered pork chop was tender, although i have decided that i am not into anything smothered. that includes smothered potatoes or smothered me. the mac n cheese was also good but the green beans were a bit too buttery.



now d had the ribs. as i don't eat the cow, i didn't taste it. but d claims that it was really good. and i saw that the meat was falling off the bone. so it seemed good.



i was happy i went. but i probably won't be visiting aunt kizzy's anytime soon.

lesson learned? nothing smothered.

san francisco: a day in the life

i was up in sf during an unusually warm mid-november day. literally, one day. 24 hours. so, what to do?

9 am: after landing and checking in at the hotel, we immediately went to the saturday farmers' market at the ferry building. it cracked me up that there was a veggie valet.



10 am: tasting wines at the wine merchant at the ferry building. jason was our new friend. he had to be. we were there doing flights from 10 am till 11:30 am, and then again after lunch.



11:30 am: lunch. finally. at hog oyster island. or is it hog island oyster? still at the ferry building. we sat outside to enjoy the warm day.

this was the market salad with anchovies (or boquerones, as our server liked to call it).



kumamoto oysters



and of course, the star of the day, grilled cheese: i order it every. single. time. the bread was crispy outside. the inside was soft and full of melted cheese goodness from cowgirl creamery (next door). don't know the proportions but the cheeses were: mazzo secco, cave aged gruyere and fromage blanc. ummm. ummm. ummmm.



we saw other people order the crab and we decided we had to have it. sadly, i was not that excited with it. and i love crab. this particular dish was not warm and all the gooey goodness underneath that shell were all scraped off. the shell was cleaned out! the horror! note to self: stick with the grilled cheese.



our server bringing our third bottle of wine.



j and the vouvray.



2 pm: back at the wine merchant... these were three kinds of chocolates. don't remember where they were from. good with 2 bottles of red wine though...



8:45 pm: dinner time. this time at circolo in portrero hill. we started off with this tuna tartare. it was served with stale tasting chips. shame. however, the chunky tuna was good and i liked the seaweed salad bit.



this foie gras was ok...



this spinach salad was served with bits of swine. yep, those were pork, not croutons. brilliant!



this was my chilean seabass (i know, i know). i liked it nicely seared.



i am in love with crustacean's (in beverly hills) garlic noodles. and i measure every single bowl of garlic noodles to crustacean's. i really shouldn't. i always end up disappointed. and this was no exception. it wasn't garlicky enough and the noodles a bit soggy. but, it did it's purpose of soaking up the alcohol from my daytime festivities.



we brought our own cupcakes to circolo. these were from a place called kara's cupcakes. a lot of people rave about it. i don't know why. they were good enough, but nothing special. i had a chocolate chocolate (middle bottom) and a vanilla chocolate (bottom left). the icing in both weren't as sweet as magnolia bakery's (in nyc) or as rich as that ganache on the cupcakes from the now-defunct dainties (in la). but the cake themselves were light, which i liked.





so that was the end of 14 hours in sf. the rest of the time was spent dancing and sleeping. then, back to reality. home. sweet. home.

it's a new york state of mind

i recently went to nyc to celebrate my favorite holiday. no, not jrue holiday. halloween.

that being said, while nyc was supposed to be all fun, girl gotta eat. so here goes my gastronomic travel story.

ESCA

while i think pizzeria mozza in los angeles and b&b ristorante in las vegas are okay, i truly enjoy osteria mozza. but, more importantly, i love babbo in nyc. so, i thought, i love seafood and mario batali has been giving me some good eating, why not try esca? i did.... within three hours of landing in nyc.

i started off with their famed crudo. sashimi. the problem that i had with it was that all the fish tasted the same. i.e., all were dressed in sea salt, olive oil and lemon. what should have been a light, refreshing dish became a bit too much for me.



on the other hand, the crispy troutlings were good (that is, without having to drench it in the horseradish). i just liked how it was unapologetically fried without being greasy. if they served it the way it was, without any dressing, i would have been just as happy. i am happy to report that the poor fish was completely eaten - heads, tails and bones included.



i am a fan of octopus. and this grilled octopus with some really large white beans was no exception. i have found that batali's restaurants really do octopus well. i don't know why. but this was meaty and tender and served warm.



this blackfish, served with mushrooms and leeks, was bland. to be fair, my mom asked that it be "low sodium" to comply with her dietary restrictions. that being said, i did not enjoy this dish.




SPICE MARKET

after lunching with mom, the rest of my eats were with the gals. this jean-georges vongerichten joint in the meat packing district was bumping. it was crowded, and it took a while to get a seat even though we had reservations. as a consequence, the bar area was a popular spot. the drinks were nothing to write home about though. nonetheless, we met some interesting dudes who were bent on impressing us gals on how hip they were. really.

below was the seafood laksa with shrimp and scallop. as in one shrimp. and one scallop.



i have no memory of the name of this dish or how it tasted. that's sad.



this was the coconut sticky rice, which coconut flavor was subtle to none.



this was the chili garlic noodles with shrimp. i suppose it was tasty but for the fact that all garlic noodles have to be measured against crustacean's garlic noodles. with that in mind, this was average.



this dish was the snap peas. i don't really remember this dish either. how sad.




RESTO

prior to arriving to nyc, i heard much about this new-ish restaurant. it stood out because it was supposed to be swine heaven. which was always a plus for me. so off we were to lunch.

this was the belgian hangover pasta, which came with ham, gruyere and egg served sunny side up. i liked this dish. the ham was thick and the pasta was nice. just don't look at the bottom of the dish when you've scraped it off. yes, that's a lot of oil.

this was the grilled cheese with gruyere and pork belly. mmmm..... pork belly. the bread was soaked through with butter. but i was ok with that. definitely not for the diet conscious. unless, you are conscious that you are busting your diet. let's just say that those green things on the side of the plate were left untouched and the rest were cleaned off.



the fries below were average but what made it good was the sauce, which you can choose. ours was yogurt, cumin and garlic. those rich flavors went well with the fries.



the tete de cochon below was a special dish and was basically a spicy pulled pork. like the grilled cheese, the bread was soaked through with butter. i thought it was tasty although i enjoyed the grilled cheese better.



MAGNOLIA BAKERY

i like cupcakes. and i heard much about this cupcakery. but i don't get it. see, i am a big fan of dainties cupcakes in la. but alas, dainties is no longer. it disappeared. poof. gone. but i digress.

the cupcakes below from magnolia were of the chocolate variety, which i tried. the cupcake itself was light but i thought to be too grainy. the icing, on the other hand, was nice and creamy. don't get me wrong, it was good. still. i miss dainties.

BAR BOULUD

one of my girlfriends really wanted to try daniel boulud's restaurant. so off we went.

the cheese bread below was fluffy enough. but again, i saw and tasted it and i couldn't help but compare it to the bistro laurent tourondel empire's divine cheese puff heaven. my vote goes to blt. sorry boulud. for starters, i would serve it warm to piping hot. i would also make it fluffier.



ordering the pork belly below should not be a surprise to anyone who know me. that being said, this version was tasty and crunchy. but a bit too salty. i still enjoyed it though.



i ordered this special dish, which was basically baby sheep prepared as a sausage, grilled and skewered. i was assured by the server that it was fresh. i found it too gamey. and when i say gamey, i meant smelly. as an aside, i often wonder why sheep abroad is not gamey (i.e., smelly) but it almost always is in this country....



the chocolat noisette below might have been my favorite dish from bar boulud. the light chocolate sprinkled with hazelnuts had a perfect texture in the mouth. mmmmmm.... hazelnuts.

i ate more. as in at green bo in chinatown (very disappointing) and at miracle bar and grill in the village (good bar food). but i'm tired.

keep in mind though that although i may tire of writing, i can never tire of eating. if i ever do, pigs are flying.