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.

what a historic moment

i gained 10 pounds in the last 3 weeks eating with simon and eating in nyc.

oh right, there's that other historic moment.

i am pleased.

i forgot how my palate tastes

on september 10, i went to a zocalo panel moderated by jonathan gold of la weekly. with him were several chefs, discussing, in effect, what is la food. octavio becerra was a panelist. he just opened palate food + wine in glendale. he predicted that glendale is the new culver city. hmmmm.....

so, on october 12, a few friends went to check it out. the staff was friendly. especially the french bartender who seemed to have a good time talking europe, cocktails, wine and politics with my british friend, simon.

we got started early. i remember thinking that the cheese plate was ok. nothing stood out.


i thought the butter, which was sprinkled with salt and thinly sliced beets (i think), was interesting and good but the bread... not so muc



one of the surprises i enjoyed at palate were the potted jars. i can't tell which is which now but one was pork and one was chicken. they were spiced perfectly and went well with the toasted bread.





being a swine lover, i was very excited to try the porkfolio, an assorted plate of cured meats. the problem with it was that it was just too dry.



like i said, i am a big fan of the swine. this was the pork belly, which was pretty good but did not have any crackling. but that's ok. belly fat is almost always a good thing.



the scallops were fine. i honestly don't remember it well so it must not have been that amazing. alternatively, it wasn't that horrid either.



this was the gnocchi. i remember that almost all my dining companions enjoyed this dish. it just didn't stand out for me.



the biggest disappointment was the special truffle dish. i can't even remember what was in the dish other than the truffle. it was memorable because the truffle was hard and tasteless.



i remember that this chocolate mousse was pretty good.



this pudding was also sweet and good.

ok, lesson: blog after eating.

but here are my immediate thoughts on whether glendale is the new culver city. ummmm.... no. it also doesn't help that there is nothing (other than a car dealership) within walking distance of palate. so while palate has some good food, and some not so good food, i doubt i will be trekking to glendale anytime soon.

finally, a win.

yes, wazzu was (is) at the bottom of the pac-10 barrel. but hey, a win is a win.

so much confidence, indeed, that bruin fans were doing the wave.... a lot... during the bruins' commanding 28-3 win. i wanted the wave to stop.



kevin craft seemed more confident. that's good. but my euphoria was (still is) tempered by the fact that, again, wazzu was (and still is) at the bottom of the barrel. we shall see what happens next week when ucla travels to oregon (who just got embarrassed by $c last night).

to be continued...

ooops, sorry

ok, i feel a bit remorseful for what i said after reading this.

good for coleman overcoming so much. and i am happy he is at ucla. i'd be happier though if he can hang on to the ball....

don't drop the damned ball!

i think derrick coleman needs to run 5 miles (or even 10!) with the ball tomorrow so he gets used to NOT DROPPING THE BALL!!!

so much promise and energy at the beginning of the game coming out of the tunnel:


all wasted by coleman dropping the ball in the 4th with ucla only down 5 points. ugh.

let the bad times roll

just like the roller coaster that was wall street this past week, so was ucla's football season. but at least wall street got bailed out. don't think ucla will get bailed out anytime soon.

i'm cheesey, yes i know

andrew's cheese shop in santa monica opened fairly recently and they offer a basic cheese class. i like cheese. so, i went.

as much as i like cheese, i know some things about it but not so much. andrew talked while two employees passed around cheeses to try with bread and wine. for $25, it was well worth it.

so what did i glean from cheese 101?
1. i have a new favorite cheese. it is called zamorano. this is a hard cheese from the castile-leon region of spain. think manchengo. but better.
2. a good brie-like cheese is called fougerus. it's nice and creamy but it is not made in the brie region of france so it can't be called brie. but, it is still yummy.
3. gouda is pronounced "how-duh" not "goo-duh."
4. for the most part, soft cheeses are probably less fatty than hard cheeses. apparently, fat is measure in dry mass. a pound of soft cheese has lots of water and could be 50% butterfat. a pound of hard cheese doesn't have a lot of water and could be 30% butterfat. once one squeezes out all the water in the soft cheese, however, that cheese becomes say 1/10 of a pound. can't really squeeze any more water from hard cheese so it stays a pound in weight. thus, that 1/10 of a pound of cheese with 50% buterfat ends up being less fatty than a pound of cheese with 30% butterfat.
5. triple cream is not cheese. it is a cheese product. there is cheese in it but it is mostly buttermilk.
6. that white stuff on the rind of brie and brie like products is called "bloomy rind" because the mold is blooming. eiw!
7. blue cheese uses mold formed from rye bread. (at least the roquefort kind.)
8. the us imports and produces unpasteurized (raw) milk. the difference is that the cheese is aged. that way, the bad bacteria is killed.
9. the best way to store cheese is to tightly wrap the cut part of the cheese in plastic but leave part of the rind unwrapped so it can breath. put it in the cheese shelf of the fridge, or towards the bottom of the fridge assuming that the cool air comes from the top and not the bottom. also, one can store the cheese inside tupperware with a wet sponge near (but not touching) the cheese to keep it humid. then put the tupperware in the fridge.
10. andrew likes montgomery cheddar from england. he buys it from neal's yard. i thought it was just ok.

so that's what i remember from the class. i really want me some zamorano. mmmmmm.

lala land cuisine

so i just got back from listening to a panel moderated by jonathan gold of la weekly and where the panel included michael cimarusti (co-owner and executive chef of providence restaurant), octavio becerra (chef and owner of palate food & wine), and evan kleiman (executive chef of angeli caffe and host of the good food show on KCRW). the topic was: "is there such a thing as la cuisine?"

interestingly, none of them really answered the question directly. all agreed that la cuisine is varied with all the ethnic restaurants dotting the city. all also agreed that la is fortunate to have fresh ingredients nearby. but none could really say, such and such is quintessentially la food.

i can't say that there is such a thing as la cuisine. la's cuisine is varied, is international, is transcendental of the region. no one can really pin point a type of cuisine and say, "yeah, that's la cuisine." and i am fine with that so long as the food i eat in la restaurants are fresh, flavorful and great.

ucla v. tennesee (27-24)

it has been a long 5 months since college basketball ended. and finally, college football is here. i am still a bit tired from yesterday's activities and my throat is still a bit sore. but, can i just say that THAT was an amazing game.

i had very very low expectations coming in to the season. yes, rick neuheisel, norm chow and dewayne walker sounded like a very good solid coaching staff. but, ucla's starting quarterback, kevin craft, was a third stringer junior college transfer.

the first half was unbelievably depressing. craft threw 4 interceptions. and it wasn't like any bruin was in the vicinity of the ball. oh hell no... no bruin was even in the same zip code. yep, craft pretty much threw the ball to tennessee. the bright side was that defense was amazing. and, defense scored a touchdown for ucla.

if the first half drove me to prozac, i almost had a heart attack in the second half. i thought ucla was losing, then ucla started moving the ball. then ucla scored a touchdown with less than 2 minutes left in the game to be up by 3. it was pandemonium... until tennessee tied the game to put it into overtime. i was on pins and needles. it was, however, pure joy to see tennessee's kicker miss a field goal.

bottom line is, ucla suffered a whole bunch of injuries during the game (not counting the ones to cowan and olson). ucla had no business winning against then no. 18 tennessee. even if ucla loses most of its game this season, the future looks bright.

GO BRUINS!!!



bruins coming out of the tunnel


neuheisel's post-game speech