cecconi: another trendy resto

saturday was not a good day for the bruin faithful. but, i won't talk about it.

so, after indulging myself in the requisite grieving period, i was off to dinner. this time at cecconi's in west hollywood.

the space was nice - dim, airy, faux chandelier.

the server we had was actually pretty friendly, gregarious, funny and full of suggestions. it was refreshing not to get a stuck-up-not-acting-better-than-thou server in weho.

there was the almost-expected celebrity sighting: dana delaney was there.

the space was a bit loud (and i don't mean the color scheme). i don't know why restos in la seem to be all really loud or really quiet (valentino comes to mind where one is afraid to make any noise). happy medium, anyone?

on to the food.

we started off with the octopus salad. it seems a bit trendy these days to have octopus on the menu, which is nothing bad. here, though, it was fine. the octopus was tender, nicely flavored but it did not wow.



d had the the chicken, which she said was fine.


a had the papardelle with sausage. this was very tasty. the pasta was not al dente, which was actually fine by me. don't get me wrong, it wasn't soggy or anything. the sausafe was full of flavor.


i had the rack of lamb. it actually came out different than what i imagined. but, it was pretty good. not gamey.


another trendy thing on the menu these days is some kind of chocolate fondant with ice cream. but, i am a sucker for chocolate so we got it. i asked to substitute vanilla ice cream for the pistachio, which was fine. the chocolate was perfectly melty and not overwhelmingly sweet. of all the meals we ordered, this was polished off. i can't say it was the best i ever had but it was perfectly fine.


with two glasses of wine, my share came to about $73. kinda pricey especially with this recession going on.

march madness 2009: heart attack-ville

take that, obama!

he may be the most powerful man in the free world, but he knows jack when it comes to basketball.

go bruins!

march madness 2009: my picks

it pains me that ucla is not gonna make the final four, but it is what it is. if they do, great. if they don't.... well...

so here are my picks:

temescal canyon and anisette

on my first hike since summiting kilimanjaro, i chose an easy hike -- max 1.5 hours. temescal canyon in the pacific palisades fit the bill. the entrance is on temescal canyon where it meets sunset boulevard. you can park inside for $5.00 or park on the street for free. methinks, free is always the best.








this trail was a loop. in my opinion, the best workout was to take the trail clockwise (to the left) as the trail went through more switchbacks and was steeper. the counter-clockwise (to the right) trail had gentler slopes and the downhill on the way back to the trailhead would have been steeper and thus, harder on the knees.








the trail was dotted with wildflowers that have started to bloom.
















the funny thing about this hike was that ther was a "waterfall." the problem with it was that, for most of the year, the waterfall was dry. after a downpour, you might see a waterfall. let's put it this way: don't get your hopes up.




but waterfall or no waterwall, this trail has always been pretty, a good workout but would not take the whole day, and close to civilization. beware though that because of its closeness to civilization, weekend warriors love to frequent this place.




temescal canyon's close proximity to santa monica meant that the after-hike brunch had to be in santa monica. this time, we chose anisette.



i had the hot chocolate, which was ok. (my friend's coffee and soup apparently were not hot enough.)




i also had the croque madame. for whatever reason, i don't think the gruyere worked well.



my share came to about $24, which was a bit pricey for average food. it wasn't great but it definitely wasn't bad. oh well.

bakersfield and ice cream

on my recent business trip to fresno, i didn't bring my camera because, c'mon, what is there to take pictures of in fresno?

well, luckily, i had my camera phone. on a stop in bakersfield, we stopped by a local ice cream shop called dewar's. it wasn't cheap but it sure was good.




dewar's even had the requisite local kitsch:




they sold chocolates -- not very cheap -- and i can't vouch for the goodness as i did not try them.



but we were there for the ice cream.

when we got there, we just avoided the rush but it got real crowded fast. classes must have just ended because there were lots of students from kindergarteners to high schoolers in this small establishment. and then, there were a few folks like me who were, shall we say, young at heart.







the bottom line though was that the malt was excellent. it was basically 2 1/2 scoops of ice cream of your choice with all the rich milk goodness. beware, they do not serve skim milk. the serving size was pretty large too. i opted for half vanilla and half maple nut. it was rich, creamy, sweet and absolutely delicious. it was so rich that the straw was useless. yeah, that thick. my friend had the coffee shake, which she claimed was excellent.


half way through my malt

if your stomach is not used to such heavy and rich sweetness, be aware that you might have digestion problems later. me? i had none. luckily, my stomach has high tolerance for fat. and that's a good thing.

ucla: we're number ... 2?

so ucla beat oregon. but, washington beat wazzu.

which meant ucla finished the regular season at number 2. strange. the dark days of the lavin era feels so long ago that i can't seem to fathom supporting a schizophrenic-but-will-eventually-flame-out team anymore. i'm not saying that this team is like that. not at all. i 'm just saying that it's weird not being the top dog in the pac this year. ah well. there's still the pac-10 tournament and the ncaa tournament to look forward to.

manchego: the resto, not the cheese

it seems like tapas is all the rage these days in the westside of la. first, there was bar pintxo. then, the bazaar. now, there's manchego on main in santa monica.

the space is cozy (read small) but significantly roomier than bar pintxo. i think that bar pintxo has more of an ambience because there's a jamon on the counter (which i think is always pretty to look at) and the tapas are on display in a case (reminds me of madrid).

so how does manchego's food compare? well, the only thing that i can say i tried that the resto prepared were: (1) the gazpacho; (2) the peppers with feta and pita bread (picture below); and the pureed tomato spread.



the rest were pretty much prepared elesewhere. we ordered the la mancha sampler, which included three types of cheeses (manchego, idiazabal & iberico), 2 types of jamon serrano, 2 types of chorizo, the aforementioned gazpacho, olives, and the pureed tomato.



the gazpacho had a nice garlicky kick. the pureed tomato, used as a spread, was ok - but i thought it needed more salt and olive oil. the peppers and feta just did nothing for me.

i don't know whether they cut their own jamon -- because everything came from the kitchen, which was hidden. but i distinctly remember thinking that one type of jamon serrano was just too salty, if that was even possible.

one thing i can say about manchego was that they knew how to store the cheese. they weren't stale. and normally, i would expect that of any restaurant but i recently had to turn down manchego because it was too dry.

so, if i were to rank the tapas place around, i'd rate the bazaar tops. i can't really decide on whether manchego is better than bar pintxo until i have had more of manchego's prepared food. i guess that means i will have to make another trek to santa monica.

how curious was my palate?

one of the joys about living in los angeles is that it is more often than not that winters are beautiful. today was no exception. so, i took a very long walk in the westside and found myself at curious palate. i wish i could say that i just stumbled upon it. but, a friend had actually already clued me in to this place while i was gallivanting around in tanzania.

the place was quite quaint. curious palate appears to serve healthy fare and it had a selection of meats and cheeses on display. i was to walk some more after my stop so i didn't buy anything to take home. and i wasn't that hungry either (it was only 10:15 am).




so, i opted for a large bowl of mac 'n cheese. (you haven't seen me hungry.) it had the requisite crunch factor at the top and gooey cheese inside. it wasn't the best mac n' cheese i ever had. but it sure was good enough for me to come back at a later date so i can check out their other goodies.



i mean, after all, they do serve this pinot noir soda (which basically tasted like grape juice. at 130 calories, i don't think it was worth it for me to have it again but the novelty was sure worth it).

good luck aboya!

this story about alfred aboya's family finally seeing him play "live" for the first time ever on senior day makes me very happy.

that being said, ncaa title hope is slim but still possible. ya never know.