Ok, so, posting about my love of Japanese merch reminded me of a little shopping trip Christian and I took in Munich last year.
I was visiting C and his wife and they were just wonderful hosts. Christian poured me a soda one day and, knowing how much I love iced beverages, he plunked this baseball of an ice cube into my glass. I was totally dazzled. (I'm a cheap date, folks...)
The ice ball was made by pouring water into an ingenious silicone mold and then freezing the bad boy. Once it's solid, you just slip the two parts of the mold apart and peel the bottom from the ice ball. Because of its size, it melts more slowly than small cubes, and looks super sexy while it's doing it.
I oohed and ahhed and interrogated him about where he acquired such a fancy product and he gave up the intel pretty immediately. The next day, we were off to Muji where I purchased two of the molds.
They now reside in my freezer, ready to wow whomever needs impressing.
In keeping with the theme, Bob and I had a lovely lunch in Little Tokyo today. I stopped in a cute little discount store and bought a few things, including some origami paper that made the perfect addition to my photo styling. If this site somehow becomes a money maker, I've kept my receipt so I can deduct the buck fitty.
-steen
tags: kitchen+tools
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I mean, not the spice (although my burn sensitive taste buds are notoriously sensitive), but the country. What do we know, really? I know of the brilliant poet Pablo Neruda and the author Isabel Allende. Oh yeah, there's that Pinochet guy too. So, I go to Wikipedia to hunt down more Chilean references past the ubiquitous sea bass. The only two on this very comprehensive list are guapo Christian De La Fuente and Horatio Sanz from SNL. We, the American People, are culturally deprived, Chilean-style.
So, off we go to the acclaimed Rincon Chileno in East Hollywood for a little taste of Santiago. First things off the bat: we are the only customers, the wait staff is standoffish at best, and there is this curio stand with all kinds of artifacts for us to peruse while we dine.
Oh, and there are two dining rooms, each with their own distinct set of furniture and things.
According to the foodies online, there are two things one must have.
The first being the pastel de choclo:
And the congrio:
The pastel is sort of a pot pie of chicken and various other nibbly things, such as hard cooked egg and olives. It looks more like one of those fierce tamale pies that my grandmother used to make for me in the 70s, and that is a very good thing indeed. The problem was that poor Steen kept finding little bits of eggshell in subsequent bites. Perhaps this is part of the charm, but I tend to think not.
The congrio, a Chilean fish, was quite nice, but nothing to trumpet about. It was a nice-sized fillet cooked perfectly with a light batter coating the entire piece. But aside from the squeezed lemon juice, it had no distinct qualities about it. Again, not offensive, but not mind blowing either.
And Steen's friend had some chicken dish:
I was warned from the beginning that she would have nothing subjective or objective to say about her meal, and nothing was offered. It was quite simply, chicken.
Oh, and there was this lovely dish of spicy salsa at at the table too:
So, again, a lovely meal with Steen, but nothing that makes me want to go back and try other things nor recommend it to my peeps. It does pique my interest in other South American cuisines that I have yet to try, like Columbian. Not much else to say, so Pablo Neruda, take us home!
En un beso, sabrás todo lo que he callado.
In one kiss, you'll know all I haven't said.
Rincon Chileno
4354 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 666-6075
-Quinn
** Notes from Steen: That pot pie dish was odd. It consisted of mostly corn, as far as I can recall. Not much chicken it it either. The flavor, overall, was a bit sweet and kind of odd. It was interesting at first but I quickly tired of it. I spent the meal lamenting my choice and wishing I'd ordered either Quinn's or Julie's meals instead.
tags: dining, restaurants, Los+Angeles, Chile, Chilean+food
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That ChubbyPanda is a lucky so-and-so. And, clearly he's got some excellent friends.<cough cough>
The internet, she is a cruel mistress. Some days I feel like all I do is travel from one website to another, coveting, coveting, coveting. I was over at ChubbyPanda's blog today and got a big old double-whammy to the face.
Witness the titanium spork: A) It's a wonderously ridiculous, completely unnecessary Japanese novelty item camouflaging as something useful (it goes without saying - though I'm saying it - that I'm a sucker for just this type of thing), and B) It's a SPORK for god's sake!!! Come on! I can't be expected to resist.
Go buy me one. Or better yet, I'm thinking titanium spork service for 8. It's gonna be haute for oh seven. Just you watch!
-steen
tags: spork, dining, Japanese+gadgets
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Hello All,
I'm new here and I am a self professed foodie- there.. I admitted it. I love good food in any form or at any altitude. Give me hospital food and I will critique it. Tonight I was chatting with Steen about, what else.. food, when I shared with her a much beloved link to a website that I feel NO foodie traveler should be without.
AirlineMeals.net
Are you tired of crappy airline meals? Are you tired of asking for water and getting a little sippy cup sized doling? I say give me the whole bottle dammit! Perhaps you're fed up with paying like $5 for a sandwich sans condiments and donning a layer of neon orange *pasteurized cheese food* that I wouldn't feed my pet rats?
If you agree with any of the aforementioned, then you're a foodie on wings and as such you deserve proper beforehand knowledge of what meals you can expect while trapped in those metal birds. Arm yourselves, take to the skies with a camera. Snap a few shots of the meals you've loved/endured and you can help other foodies on wings become empowered before they confirm that flight.
The days are gone when I could pack myself a cute little plane picnic. Now when I fly, I have to bare my soul in a plastic bag just to get through boarding. Good-bye fair chef salad and umpteen litres of Evian tucked safely away in my carry-on, ready at a moment's notice- waiting to be imbibed. Good-bye lovingly prepared spinach wrap, you are now replaced with sub par vittles peddled at a premium that I begrudgingly pay for.
Economy, Business or First class.. we deserve good food!!
Personally, I love flying Lufthansa, and up until recently, there was internet access aboard most flights. Let's face it, we're all pretty much suckling on the teat of the world wide web, so net access on a plane is a boon on any flight. Also on Lufthansa, not only does the wine and cocktails flow like the river Nile, but the food is actually pretty good. Camembert, Pinot Grigio, a sun-dried tomato pasta and lemon scented linen face towels prior to our meal pretty much sum up my experience on Lufthansa Economy class to Frankfurt from LAX.
We are no longer stuck up there at their mercy. Foodies on wings unite!
-tara
tags: airline+food, eating, dining
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Now, those of us (in NYC at least) who feel as though we missed out on something great finally get to bask in the sterile glow of the Automat. Who knew. So, whattaya think? Will we see them popping up all over the country? Only time will tell.
I'm gonna have to get Chris to swing by there and tell us what she thinks. She hasn't posted yet, but perhaps all she needs is an assignment. LOL
-steen
tags: automat, food, New+York+City
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Two, count 'em, two meals out today. Not unheard of. Wednesday was more exotic: Indian in Artesia and Vietnamese in Garden Grove. But, truth be told, I was much more delighted with my two classic Hollywood meals du jour.
One of my fave breakfasts (being the egg disenter that I am) is the Home Fries My Soul at the Griddle Cafe. Big fat fries slathered in luscious chili, covered with cheddar cheese, green onions, and sour cream. The chili at The Griddle is always on point. I wish they had one variety that was a little tempered down, spice-wise (the mildest beef one was rated a "5" today) and my wuss-like taste buds gave out a bit early. But I never finish the bowl, and feel great about it. As Ruben has taught me, it's alright to not be a member of the "clean-plate club." And I sat at the counter, which I really love. Meals at bar stools make me very happy indeed.
And my fierce and lovely pal Alan calls me up and suggests a lunch at the 101 Coffee Shop. I careened through the traffic and my eyes were transfixed on one item on the menu: live butter leaf lettuce salad. How could something that sounded so lame also sound so enticing? And what makes it live? Is it like Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors? Would it squeal when I nibbled upon it's tender flesh? It was just what I needed to counter the bowel-clogging loveliness of the my morning repast. An entire head of butter lettuce. Goat cheese. Walnuts. Grapes. Vinaigrette. I damn near ate the whole thing, but as with most salads, the rabbit feed/redundancy effect came into play, but I did really, really good this time. I love a lettuce leaf. I think the reason that I don't eat as much salad as I used to is because of the preponderance of this thing called "mixed baby greens." You can call it mesculin for all I care - it is wimpy and has no balls or bite whatsoever. Give me some crispy iceberg, some romaine, and certainly some butter lettuce. As I held it up in admiration to Alan, I announced "Give me the leaf!"
Hollywood Classics for sure. And yet, still better than Opus, I dare say.
-Quinn
tags: breakfast, chili, Hollywood, California
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Way back in early February, I prepared Nancy Silverton's Bagna Cauda sandwich. As I mentioned in that post, I had a fair amount of the tasty anchovy/garlic goodness left over. The next day I prepared a simple lunch that really knocked my socks off. I've got to make more bagna cauda sometime soon, it's got a million uses, all of them delicious!
Shmancy Crab Salad Sangwich
Fresh french bread/baguette
2-3 tbsp bagna cauda (recipe here)
1 6oz can crab meat (well drained)
1 tbsp mayonnaise (more if you like)
1/2 tsp good quality mustard powder
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup mixed herbs or baby greens, rinsed and dried well
Cut bread in half and lightly toast. Spread with bagna cauda.
Mix together crab, mayonnaise, mustard powder, lemon, salt and pepper and pile onto one half of the bread. Add the greens and close her up.
Easy as pie!!
This sandwich was pretty refined and extremely flavorful. You could easily serve it on toast points for a tea party or something like that. Overall, it's classy and you'll look good serving it to friends. =)
-steen
tags: cooking, crab, sandwiches, recipes
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I laughed aloud when I saw these Dharma Initiative food labels on the Insanely Great Tees site (followed a link from Brownie Points *thanks!*). The nice folks at IGT clearly have too much time on their hands, but since we all get to benefit from it, I'm not poo-pooing. They are providing printable PDF files and application instructions. So helpful.
These guys are funny. Note the Serving Suggestions:
Crisps = Snack
Cola = Drink
Mayonnaise = Scoop
And, mayonnaise is called "emulsified condiment" on the label. Haha.
Promptly printed and applied. There's a surprise waiting for Bob when he gets home from his recording session tonight. Dharma beer. Nice!
-steen
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Man, I don't know what the hell happened. Bob's been back, I'm chipper, things are good, and still I've managed to neglect the Ham. For shame... I've been taking photos of meals still, but haven't posted regularly. Right now, I've got eight yet to post, though I think Quinn's supposed to be in charge of one of those. I'm on it, though. With renewed vigor. LOL
In the meantime, here's a page from a book I was looking through at the Feeding America cookbook archive. It just tickled me. Who knew bacon was not only delicious, but medicinal too? Behold the wonder that is the Bacon Bandage!
-steen
tags: bacon
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I had this review of our experience at Opus deleted from the much touted Chowhound site. When I went to one of the support boards to see if I could find any others in my predicament, I found that their posts regarding posting got deleted!
So, for all that care to, here is my opus on Opus:
Opus
So, shivering with antici......pation, my foodie pals and I went to Opus to celebrate my 38th birthday. The accolades from Chowhound posters were so uniformly stellar that I figured that this would not only be a grand slam (nod to the Denny's next door!), but something to remember for the long haul. Yes, we will remember.
Let me set the stage. We open the door and walk in...
The matre d’ kept us waiting at the bar for our table to open up, even though we were on time for our reservation. And from what we could tell, there was no one coming out of the main room as we sat there.
The air shaft at the bar was blowing an arctic breeze upon us as we clamored for two seats that were out of the line of the chill.
The bartenders were talking smack to one another about some nuance of a drink order from another customer within earshot of us.
We were seated at our table twenty minutes later when we have the front desk a “we’re ready” look and not a moment sooner.
After our first bread basket was finished, it lingered at the side of the table although we had another in its place.
The servers were a bit bumbling and way too soft spoken. We frequently had to ask them to repeat the food descriptions twice for clarification.
The award for best response of the night was one young man who explained to us that carpaccio “means” yellowtail. Oh, really? So nice to know that.
When the main server asked us if we had any food no-no’s, I told them of my aversion to eggs. She tried to hype up this mythical egg (which I sort of didn’t want to be sold on because I had already told her that I wasn’t having it) and my other friend told of her aversion to any sort of offal or organ meats.
The eggs come to my three friends. The all said that the yolk was overcooked and hard. The “cream of wheat” foam was odd. One friend said it tasted like vinegar, akin to eating a dyed Easter egg.
And there was the soup confusion. One of the lads told us that we had two kinds of soup coming to our table. One was clam with crab, the other hazelnut with fried pork belly. And all four bowls looked the same. Their guess was as good as ours and we ascertained that it was hazelnut with crab ravioli. This was the weakest link in the dinner for me. It tasted like tepid milk to me.
Another comment by another friend (didn’t bother me as much though) is that much of the food was more or less at room temperature and not sufficiently warm.
The soup hijinx evolved into an admission that it was training day for one of them. Not the sort of think I think one needs to blurt out when you are paying $60 a person.
And the sweetbreads fiasco. I thought it was wonderful. However, my friend who kindly yet emphatically said that she did not want anything of the sort was served the same thing as the rest of us. The server blamed it on the kitchen, the plate was taken away, and was returned sans organ meat. This is the sort of thing I have seen at Denny’s (again, next door) when one asks for their patty melt without onions and it comes back with the vague memory of the onions on the same burger.
The dessert came and at first bite, their take on a banana split tasted wonderful. Then, we all bit into something hard and frozen. Frozen strawberries. My friend, the organ hater, motioned to our server who responded “Oh, you don’t like that either?” Ouch! Resilient as my pal is, she asks if the berries are supposed to be frozen. As the server goes in the back to check, we can here her mutter under her breath, “Fabulous!”
And as the night went on, the service became progressively sparse and less attentive. Now this may look like we were being very challenging and needy, but the only time a grievance was really uttered was when it was solicited from our server. The egg, the organ, and the desert were the only things that were verbally brought to her attention.
As for strengths, the pita chips (how do they get them so tasty), the “carpaccio”/tempura, guinea hen, fish of unintelligible species, and veal cheek with sweetbreads made me very happy indeed.
I don’t know. Was Mercury in retrograde? Did I do something really wacky in a past life to get to experience such a peculiar dinner? Just seemed like any old Tuesday in Los Angeles. Suffice it to say, I probably won’t go back. I just really bought into the props and accolades that have been lavished upon Opus on CH. I will give benefit of the doubt always. I just wish that it hadn’t have happened for my birthday celebration. At least my pals and I have something to talk about for years to come.
-Quinn
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