i'm no longer a seder virgin

i can't believe it took me this long to experience the food fest that is seder. ok, i know that it is based on religion. but me, not of the jewish faith, wanted to experience this holy observance for the company, and for the food. so, i, along with other friends, finagled an invite to my friend's family's seder. good thing too because mary is a good cook.





mary's husband, seth, started off the reading and everyone took turns reading. mary and her sister sang some hymns in hebrew. yes, i got to read. something about the wicked sons. it was mary's idea. hmmmm..... what was she trying to say?



and before anyone asks, no, i did not find the afikomen - a piece of the matzah hidden away somewhere and the lucky kid who finds it gets some prize.



drinking the manischewitz was a treat. it tasted just like the grape juice i've drank hundreds of times in my youth while taking communion. mmmmm.... yummy.



i was also pleased to have tasted the celery dipped in salt water.



seder wasn't all eating though. we also got to hit each other (and boy, some of those hits were vicious) with the green onions. mary explained that the hitting thing with the green onions was a persian jewish tradition. let me just say on the record that i hit my companions softly with the leaves part. some people, on the other hand, were hitting with the bulb part. my friends were vicious!



one thing that my jewish friends warned me about was the gefilte fish. better yet, the gefilte fish with the maror (sp?) (grated horseradish). they warned that it was not good, that one had to acquire the taste for it. i must have, in a previous life, acquired the taste for it because i loved it. in fact, i had two. it tasted just like softer fish balls with the spam gelee. oh yeah. and the maror? well, it was like wasabi. nothing strange there.





mary also made matzah ball soup, which was perfectly filling.



also served was the tzimmes below, which i did not try because it had some cow pieces.



friends also said the brisket below was delicious. i did not have a taste as it was the cow.



but, i can attest that the stuffed cabbage with ground turkey was filling, rich, sweet and perfectly delicious. i had two!



so, at the end of seder, i was definitely grateful that i was invited. although i have already been familiar with the story of passover from my youth and college course, it was something else to be actually celebrating it.

more importantly, it was good to learn more about the culture and food of my friends. i just hope they invite me for hannukkah. there are more food then, right?

berkeley: an ode to alice waters

on a recent trip to the bay area, i had the occasion to finally (!) go to chez panisse. the fact that the obamas are now planning to have an organic garden in the white house after waters' lobbying efforts is testament to her influence in the culinary world. that being said, i went to cp with less than a week's notice and was only fortunate to get a table at the cafe upstairs. it didn't matter, i was going to go anyway.

the other problem about going to cp with a week's notice was that the table was only available at 5:30 pm or 9:15 pm. i went for the 9:15 reservations. but, because i tend to go hungry early, i had to eat well before then. the fix? pre-dinner dinner. where? cesar, which was next door to cp.

we started with a cheese plate: mahon, roncal and garrotxa. the cheeses were rich and flavorful and as i am currently in love with sheep's milk, the roncal was the clear favorite.


cesar also had these amazing fries. well, i like mine thin and crunchy and these were definitely thin and crunchy. it was perfectly seasoned and came with aioli.



after polishing off our plates, we were off next door.



this bottle from la rioja was very oaky but went well with my meal.



i had the pork shoulder with spinach and mashed potatoes. the swine practically tore itself away from itself. it was that tender.



my dessert of almond brittle ice cream with dark chocolate was divine. there were chunks of almonds in the ice cream. i was in love. if i could marry it, i would.



grace had the fixed menu that came with a salad, the pasta below with fava beans and an ice cream dessert full of fruit like tangerine and kumquats. at $26, it was definitely affordable. the ingredients were fresh and the dessert was refreshing.





now that i have finally been to cp, i understand why people rave about her food. i didn't think all the dishes were great (they were all good though) but i thought that when the ingredients and execution worked (think swine), they were right on.

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.